Patent ID: 7339703

Claim:
An image processing apparatus comprising: an input section, arranged to input a luminance signal of each pixel of a multi-valued image; a color attribute determination section, arranged to determine a color attribute of the pixel based on the luminance signal; a storage section, arranged to store the color attribute, determined by said color attribute determination section, with respect to pixels of a predetermined area including a pixel of interest; a first counting section, arranged to count an array attribute, determined in accordance with an array of the color attribute stored in said storage section, with respect to a second block having a predetermined number of lines in a first block, wherein the first block is obtained by dividing a predetermined first line group of the multi-valued image in the main scanning direction; a second counting section, arranged to count with respect to the second block the color attribute determined by said color attribute determination section; a calculation section, arranged to calculate a parameter, indicative of an image characteristic of the first block, based on counted values of said first and second counting sections; a block attribute determination section, arranged to determine an image attribute of the first block in accordance with the counted values of said first and second counting sections and the parameter calculated by said calculation section; and a line attribute determination section, arranged to determine an image attribute of the first line group based on a determination result of said block attribute determination section.