Removing an embedded barcode in an image. A barcode-embedding area in an image is acquired. Pixels in the barcode-embedding area can be changed from a RGB color space to a color space with a luminance component. The luminance values of the pixels can be determined on a dark side or a light side. The luminance values of the pixels on the dark side or the light side can be mapped to luminance values falling into a whole range of a luminance interval. The pixels in the barcode-embedding area can be changed from the color space with the luminance component to the RGB color space.