Patent ID: 7633650

Claim:
An image processing apparatus for generating image formation data by processing image data, comprising: a gradation processing unit that binarizes the image data according to an error diffusion process so as to convert the image data into binary image data; a character/line drawing detection unit that determines whether a part of the binary image data corresponds to a character/line drawing portion that consists of characters or line drawings so as to detect the character/line drawing portion; an image processing unit that applies an image processing to the part of said binary image data by using an image processing method according to a result of determination of said character/line drawing detection unit; and an image dividing unit that divides said binary image data into a plurality of image portions each containing a predetermined number n of pixels which are arranged along a single line, and wherein said character/line drawing detection unit determines, based on the respective single line of pixels, whether or not each of the image portions corresponds to the character/line drawing portion; and wherein said character/line drawing detection unit obtains a number of transition points at which the pixels in each of said image portions changes from white to black or from black to white, and determines whether or not each of the image portions corresponds to the character/line drawing portion by comparing the number of transition points with a threshold value.