Patent ID: 7710619

Claim:
An image processing apparatus for performing color conversion processing on an input image, the image processing apparatus comprising a computer that: judges an attribute of each region of the input image; reduces the input image to form a reduced image; performs a first color conversion on the reduced image to form a first color-converted image; enlarges the first color-converted image to form a first enlarged image; performs a second color conversion on the input image to form a second color-converted image; and generates an output image based on at least one of the first enlarged image and the second color-converted image, wherein: the second color conversion is performed according to a color conversion method, which requires less calculation than a color conversion method of the first color conversion; the output image is generated by selecting for each region either the first enlarged image in the enlarging step or the second color-converted image in accordance with the judged attribute of the corresponding region; and the attribute judging detects an edge amount in the input image and judges the attribute of each region using the detected edge amount.