Complete removal of an underline which intersects a character may cause problems in a subsequent character recognition or conversion process, when parts of the character which coincided with the underline are also removed. To help reduce the problems, parts of underline may be removed from an image while parts of the character that coincide with the underline are maintained in the image. Areas where the character coincides with the underline are defined from a reduced version of the underline. When the underline is removed, the areas where the character coincide with the underline are maintained in a second image. The second image may then be subjected to a character recognition or conversion process with potentially fewer problems.