Image processing apparatus and method for determining image data from reading printed document with or without applying light to extract embedded information

Abstract

Provided is an image processing apparatus for extracting embedded information from a printed document printed by an electrophotographic method, including: a first obtaining unit configured to obtain first image data by reading the printed document while applying light to the printed document; a second obtaining unit configured to obtain second image data by reading the printed document without applying light to the printed document; a determination unit configured to determine whether a high color density region of which density is higher than a predetermined value is present in the printed document; and a decision unit configured to decide which of the first image data and the second image data to set as image data to be used to extract the embedded information, according to the determination made by the determination unit.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.