Patent ID: 6999631

Claim:
An image processing apparatus comprising: a contour image generator for generating a contour image from an input image generated by reading, as a multi-valued image, print contents of printed matter; a contour adder for adding contours to said contour image by referring to a contour density distribution in said contour image to generate a contour added image; and an image synthesizer for superimposing said input image and a smoothed image obtained by performing a smoothing process for said input image, by referring to said contour added image, to generate a synthesized image, wherein said contour adder comprises: a determination unit which scans said contour image with a predetermined window, and determines whether a density of contour pixels in said predetermined window is equal to or greater than a threshold value concerning the density; a calculator which calculates an average value of contour levels of contour pixels in said predetermined window; and a change unit which changes a contour level of a target pixel in said predetermined window to said average value if the density of the contour pixels in said predetermined window is equal to or greater than said threshold value concerning the density and a contour level of a target pixel in said predetermined window is smaller than said average value, wherein the density of the contour pixels is calculated by dividing a number of pixels in said predetermined window that have a contour level higher than a predetermined level by a total number of pixels in said predetermined window.