Image processing apparatus and its method

An image processing method comprising:

• using a processor to perform the steps of:
• authenticating a user;
• segmenting an image read by a reader into image regions having different attributes;
• extracting pointer information of the image regions segmented in the segmenting step;
• converting an image of the image region, in a case of no pointer information of the image region is extracted in the extracting step and whose vector conversion is instructed by the user, into vector data;
• setting a security level of the vector data converted in the converting step;
• registering the vector data set with the security level in a server;
• obtaining a security level set to data corresponding to each of the image regions, in a case of the pointer information of each of the image regions is extracted in the extracting step, from the server based on the extracted pointer information;
• and
• determining whether or not the data corresponding to each of the image regions can be edited or printed by comparing the security level obtained in the obtaining step and a security level of the user authenticated in the authenticating step.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a computer-executable program for causing a computer to perform an image processing method, the method comprising the steps of:

• authenticating a user;
• segmenting an image read by a reader into image regions having different attributes;
• extracting pointer information of the image regions segmented in the segmenting step;
• converting an image of the image region, in a case of no pointer information of the image region is extracted in the extracting step and whose vector conversion is instructed by the user, into vector data;
• setting a security level of the vector data converted in the converting step;
• registering the vector data set with the security level in a server;
• obtaining a security level set to data corresponding to each of the image regions, in a case of the pointer information of each of the image regions is extracted in the extracting step, from the server based on the extracted pointer information;
• and
• determining whether or not the data corresponding to each of the image regions can be edited or printed by comparing the security level obtained in the obtaining and a security level of the user authenticated in the authenticating step.