Patent ID: 7916368

Claim:
An image processing device, comprising: an area extracting unit for extracting, from an object image, a first area represented by a low-chroma color of black only or two or more of basic colors consisting of black, yellow, magenta and cyan; a neighboring color extracting unit extracting a neighboring color as a color of a second area neighboring said first area; a determining unit determining whether the color of said first area and said neighboring color should be superposed to prevent a visual gap from appearing due to a shift in color output of said first area; a table forming unit for forming, using color attributes of said image processing device, a table having luminance or an amount of black component of said low chroma color as an input value and component values of said basic colors having the Lab values of said low chroma color as output values; a replacing color calculating unit for calculating, for a replacement area that is said first area determined by said determining unit to be superposed, a replacing color closer to the tone of the color of said replacement area before superposing than the tone of the color resulting from superposing the color of said replacement area and said neighboring color, based on the color of said replacement area and said neighboring color; wherein said replacing color calculating unit calculates said replacing color by setting an input value to said table in accordance with the luminance or the amount of black component of the color of said replacement area in said table, and interpolating component values of said basic colors referenced from said table such that the interpolated component values do not exceed respective component values of the basic colors of said neighboring color; and a color replacing unit for replacing the color of said replacement area with said replacing color.