Patent ID: 7099520

Claim:
An image processing apparatus comprising: outer edge discriminating means for discriminating whether or not a target pixel belongs to an outer edge region, an outer side of an edge region, based on image data; background region discriminating means for finding a background region by discriminating whether or not a target pixel belongs to a background region based on image data; first correcting means for applying first correction processing to a target pixel based on image data; second correcting means for applying second correction processing, different from the first correction processing, to a target pixel based on image data; and correction-processing-type determining means for determining which type of correction processing, namely, first correction processing or second correction processing, is to be applied to a target pixel discriminated as belonging to an outer edge region by the outer edge discriminating means; wherein the correction-processing-type determining means determines to apply the first correction processing to a target pixel discriminated as not belonging to a background region by the background region discriminating means, and wherein the correction-processing-type determining means determines to apply the second correction processing to a target pixel discriminated as belonging to a background region by the background region discriminating means.