To provide an image processing apparatus, an image forming device, an image processing method, a computer program, and a recording medium, each capable of performing extraction of a foreground pixel at high precision for image data with a complicated layout.

An image processing apparatus includes: a compression processing unit 30 that performs a process for extracting a character string area from input image data in a color conversion processing unit 50 to a layout analysis processing unit 53; a foreground layer generation processing unit 54 that extracts a foreground pixel from the character string area and generates a foreground layer; a line detection processing unit 52 that extracts a line from the input image data and performs a correction to extract a pixel block structuring the line from a foreground pixel block mask generated by a foreground extraction processing unit 51; and a layout analysis processing unit 53 that estimates a character string direction depending on distance between foreground areas and a continuous number, combines the foreground areas which continue in an estimated direction, and extracts the area as the character string area.