1. A method of image processing comprising the steps of: (a) obtaining image data of an original image, the original image having character images provided on a background image; (b) conducting character recognition of the image data as a first process, including the steps of: (b- 1 ) preprocessing the image data for character recognition; (b- 2 ) extracting areas from the image data which correspond to the character images; and (b- 3 ) generating character code data based on the extracted character images; (c) conducting a second process on the image data based on the first process, including the step of replacing the extracted areas with the background image with reference to the image data; and (d) storing data obtained by conducting the second process on the image data and the character code data along with a relationship between them.