Abstract: An image processing apparatus that processes image data and transmits processed image data to an external unit includes a content determination unit that determines content of image processing to be applied to image data for each image data, an image processing unit that applies the image processing of the content determined by the content determination unit to the image data, and a transmission unit that transmits the image data processed by the image processing unit to an external unit.

Abstract: A hard disk drive (HDD) stores a plurality of image data in a first format in a compressed form. An image format converter converts the format of the image data to a second format. The second format is a general format, as such as JPEG or TIFF. When transmitting the image data to an external PC, the image data in both the first format and the second format is transmitted.

Abstract: The image data corresponding to an image is separated into areas corresponding to contents of the image. The image data in each of the area is subjected to an image processing specific to the content of the image. The image types are, for example, a character, a photograph, color, and presence of halftone. The image processing are, for example, gamma correction, color conversion, and gradation processing. The processed image data is then transferred to an external device via network.

Abstract: An image reader scans a document to thereby acquire image data. This image data is in a first format and is stored in a memory. When an external device requests for the image data, a format converter, converts the image data in the first format into an image data in a second format that is acceptable to the external device. The external device forms an image on a recording medium using the image data in the second format.