Patent ID: 6078405
Filing Date: 2000-06-20
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
An image processing device comprising:area deciding means for judging a pixel to be of a character image area or a halftone image area by sequentially checking multi-gradational image data pixel by pixel;character-binarizing means for binarizing character image areas;photograph-binarizing means for binarizing halftone image areas; andoutput means for selectably outputting binarized data for character or binarized data for halftone according to the area decision results,wherein the area deciding means for judging a pixel to be of a character image area or a halftone image area by checking multi-gradational image data pixel by pixel is further provided withpixel deciding means for judging an objective pixel to be of a character image area or a halftone image area by referring to pixels neighboring the objective pixel, andline deciding means for deciding all of the pixels arranged on a line as a halftone area in a case of the number of the pixels decided as halftone area is equal to or larger than a specified threshold or as a character area in a case of the number of the pixels decided as halftone area is less than the specified threshold.