Patent ID: 8446642

Claim:
An image processing apparatus comprising: an image reading unit configured to read a draft and obtaining digitized image data of the draft; an image writing unit configured to print image data on a transfer paper; a recording unit configured to record image data and attached information of the image data; an external I/F unit configured to transmit and receive image data and attached information of the image data to and from an external device; a first image data processing unit processing the image data from the image reading unit; a second image data processing unit configured to process the image data from the recording unit or the external I/F unit; and a bus controlling unit configured to connect each of the units, wherein: the first image data processing unit is configured to match image sharpness characteristics of the image data using a modulation transfer function, the image data being input from the image reading unit, to selected image sharpness characteristics, obtained from a reference chart read by the image reading unit, so that the matched image data are usable for both the image writing unit and the external device, and record the matched image data in the recording unit, and the second image data processing unit is configured to make the image data recorded in the recording unit reusable for both the image writing unit and the external device by matching the image sharpness characteristics of the image data using a modulation transfer function to the image sharpness characteristics suitable for both an output of the image writing unit and the external I/F unit, and wherein in a case that a request from the external device to obtain the matched data recorded in the recording unit is received by the image processing apparatus, the external device is permitted to retrieve the matched data in the recording unit through the external I/F unit.