IMAGE PROCESSOR AND PROGRAM

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To further rapidly determine an edge direction of a character image or line image. SOLUTION: An edge determination part 12 selects, based on an edge determination result of a past target pixel located around a current target pixel, an edge determination algorithm inferred to be appropriate from a plurality of edge determination algorithms stored in a storage part 12, and applies it to the current target pixel first to try edge determination. Concretely, when edge determination is performed for the current target pixel located in the edge direction in relation to the position of the past target determined to be a pixel showing an edge, the edge determination part 12 uses an edge determination algorithm according to the edge direction first. COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT