Patent ID: 8428386

Claim:
An image processing apparatus performing an image process on input image data, comprising: a density calculation section which calculates a density of a pixel region including a plurality of pixels of an input image on the basis of a pixel value of the pixel region; a first process section which performs a smoothing process on the input image data; a second process section which performs a process having both an enhancement characteristic and a smooth characteristic on the input image data; a weighting coefficient setting section which sets, in accordance with the density calculated by the density calculation section, a first coefficient used for weighting an image data having been processed by the first process section and a second coefficient used for weighting an image data having been processed by the second process section; a weight process section which weights the image data having been processed by the first process section by using the first coefficient set by the weighting coefficient setting section, weights the image data having been processed by the second process section by using the second coefficient set by the weighting coefficient setting section, adds weighted image data to each other and outputs image data resulting from addition; and an area image discrimination section which determines, on the basis of a pixel value within a pixel block containing a plurality of pixels including a current pixel, whether or not the input image belongs to a text edge area, wherein the weighting coefficient setting section sets the first coefficient and the second coefficient for performing the smoothing process on the input image data when the area image discrimination section determines that the input image does not belong to a text edge area and the density calculated by the density calculation section is larger than a predetermined density threshold value.