To efficiently execute a correction work after noise removal.

A rectangle extracting means 21 extracts continuous black pixels as a set of circumscribed rectangles from an input image. A noise determining/classifying means 22 determines whether it is a noise or not regarding each rectangle. The rectangle determined as the noise at that time is classified depending on the type of the noise. A noise removal means 23 removes the black pixels in the rectangle as the noise by converting the black pixels in the rectangle determined as the noise to white pixels. The image, from which the noise is removed, is displayed on a display 13 as an output image. The type of the noise and the rectangle information in the determination result of each extracted rectangle are stored as noise information. A user executes the correction work with a correcting means 24 while confirming the image displayed on the display 13.

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