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Abstract

A method of progressively reproducing a natural image successively decodes and displays data which are stored in a memory in at least three stages including display of a retrieval image which is used for giving a general idea of the image, a soft copy image which has a sufficiently high resolution for display and a hard copy image which has a sufficiently high resolution for printing. The data stored in the memory includes at least retrieval image data which is obtained by coding the natural image, soft copy image data which is obtained by coding a difference of the retrieval image and the soft copy image and hard copy image data which is obtained by coding a difference of the soft copy image and the hard copy image. The method comprises the steps of (a) decoding the retrieval image data read out from the memory to display a retrieval image, (b) decoding the soft copy image data and a predetermined part of the hard copy image data read out from the memory to display a soft copy image in which a predetermined part thereof is replaced by a hard copy image part which is described by the predetermined part of the hard copy image data, (c) decoding the hard copy image data read out from the memory to display a hard copy image excluding the hard copy image part, and (d) printing the hard copy image based on the hard copy image data decoded in the steps (b) and (c).

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First Claim