1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device which separates various objects from image data and which performs image processing on the objects thus extracted, and more specifically relates to a device which determines whether to perform the vector transform on an object in accordance with a characteristic of the object, i.e. an object attribute and/or the type of job set for the object.
2. Description of the Related Art
The spreading of digital cameras and image scanners today allows photo images to be digitalized easier than before. What has been made possible, for example, is: taking digitized photo images into a personal computer (hereafter, simply referred to as a PC); storing the images as image files; and processing and editing the image files by application programs. In addition, the image files of the photo images thus processed and edited can be laid out in an electronic document, such as a text document and a drawing. In this way, an electronic document that has photo images incorporated therein can be created.
In addition, a digital multifunctional peripheral that integrates functions of a scanner, a copier, a printer, a fax, and the like can be connected to a PC through a communication network, such as a LAN and the Internet. Such networking allows the PC to send, to the digital multifunctional peripheral, such electronic documents as a text document or a drawing incorporating a photo image taken by a digital camera. Then, the digital multifunctional peripheral can print out the received electronic document.
There exists a well-known image processing system capable of compressing image data to a higher degree while maintaining quality of an image, by separating the image data into a plurality of objects, and then by performing image processing and encoding processing on each of the objects. In addition, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H05-211607 discloses a method of reducing image degradation. The method includes: extracting a character object from image data; detecting a contour of the character object; and switching between smoothing the detected contour and not smoothing the detected contour. Here, whether to perform smoothing the detected contour is determined in accordance with a magnification specified by a user.
In the above-described conventional technique, after a character object is extracted from image data, transform processing from the image data into vector data (a vector image), such as a contour-extraction processing is always performed without consideration of a characteristic of the extracted character object. Note that, the contour-extraction processing, in general, takes a large amount of time. Accordingly, transforming image data into vector data without considering the characteristic of the object is likely to be a factor to lower the performance of the device.