A process for color graphics image processing, related to detection and segmentation of sweeps, is provided. An input graphics image is transformed into a three-dimensional histogram in an appropriate color space 104 (e.g., CIELUV). Two-dimensional histograms are estimated from the three-dimensional histogram 106. The two-dimensional histograms are processed to detect and segment sweeps 108. Sweep segment information from the processing of the two-dimensional histograms is combined 110. The combined sweep segment information is used to process the input graphics image to identify and segment sweeps 112. Post-processing may be optionally and selectively used to reject false alarms (i.e., areas falsely identified as sweeps) 114.