Patent ID: 7773258

Claim:
An image processing apparatus that performs a color separation process for, as recording materials used for color reproduction, determining an amount of a particular color recording material expressing a color having a hue different from respective hues expressed by each of basic color recording materials corresponding to three primary colors, said apparatus comprising: storage means for storing a table; and color separation means for using the table to determine an amount of each of a first and a second particular color recording materials so that, among colors to be reproduced by using the first particular color recording material, a color having a lightness lower than a lightness of a color having a maximum chroma is reproduced by using the second particular color recording material as well as the first particular color recording material, wherein the table stores the respective amounts of the first and second particular color recording materials, which express the color having lower lightness, as lattice point data correspondingly to a lattice point defined with color signals specifying the color having lower lightness.