Patent ID: 8437046

Claim:
An image processing apparatus, comprising: a unit for performing halftone processing on one multi-value image by using a plurality of different kinds of threshold value arrangements and generating a plurality of halftone images which have different density characteristics; a unit for generating a difference image between a first halftone image and a halftone image other than the first halftone image among the plurality of generated halftone images; a unit for storing the first halftone image and the generated difference image; a unit for determining a density characteristic for printing the halftone image; a unit for generating a halftone image, when the unit for determining determines to carry out printing with the density characteristic different from that of the stored first halftone image, by combining the stored difference image according to the determined density characteristic and the stored first halftone image; and a unit for outputting the combined and generated halftone image for printing.