Patent ID: 8488198

Claim:
An image processing apparatus that prints an image on a pixel area of a printing medium by performing a plurality of relative scans between the printing medium and a printing unit that ejects inks according to the print data obtained by processing multi-valued data of the image, the plurality of relative scans including a first scan and a second scan, said apparatus comprising: an obtaining unit configured to obtain an information about a characteristic of the image to be printed on the pixel area; a dividing unit configured to divide the multi-valued image data into at least first multi-valued data that corresponds to the first scan, second multi-valued data that corresponds to the second scan, and third multi-valued data that corresponds to both of the first scan and the second scan according to a division ratio that corresponds to the characteristic of the image to be printed on the pixel area; a quantization unit configured to quantize the first multi-valued data to a first quantized data, the second multi-valued data to a second quantized data, and the third multi-valued data to a third quantized data, respectively; and a combination unit configured to combine the first quantized data and the third quantized data to generate the print data corresponding to the first scan and combine the second quantized data and the third quantized data to generate the print data corresponding to the second scan.