An image processing apparatus includes: a document accepting section that accepts a document having pieces of character information and character images in mixture; a character information extracting section that extracts the pieces of character information from the accepted document; a character image extracting section that extracts the character images from the accepted document; recognizing the character images; a character recognition control section that performs a control so as to cause the character recognition section to recognize an extracted character image by using pieces of character information that are located in the vicinity of said extracted character image; and a document shaping section that shapes the document on the basis of the extracted pieces of character information and character recognition results of the character recognition section.