Image processing apparatus and method for control to smooth a character region of a binary image and perform character recognition

An image processing method, comprising:

• generating, as first binzarization, binary image data by performing halftone processing on image data;
• detecting a character region of the generated binary image data;
• performing smoothing processing on at least the character region;
• performing, as second binzarization, binarization processing on the character region having been subjected to the smoothing processing;
• and
• performing character recognition processing on the character region having been subjected to the simple binarization processing in the second binarization.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores a program for causing a computer to execute a method for controlling an image processing apparatus, the method comprising:

• generating, as first binarization, binary image data by performing halftone processing on image data;
• detecting a character region of the generated binary image data;
• performing smoothing processing on at least the character region;
• performing, as second binarization, binarization processing on the character region having been subjected to the smoothing processing;
• and
• performing character recognition processing on the character region having been subjected to the simple binarization processing in the second binarization.