Patent ID: 8662613

Claim:
An image processing apparatus generating recording data for discharging ink droplets from a first nozzle and a second nozzle of a recording head, wherein the second nozzle is used for discharging smaller ink droplets than the ink droplet discharged from the first nozzle, for recording an image on a recording medium, the image processing apparatus comprising: an obtaining unit configured to obtain image data indicating first multi-valued gradation values corresponding to an ink amount applied by the first nozzle onto a unit area of the recording medium and second multi-valued gradation values corresponding to an ink amount applied by the second nozzle onto a unit area of the recording medium, based on the input data of the image; a correction unit configured to correct the first and second multi-valued gradation values of the image data obtained by the obtaining unit corresponding to the first nozzles and the second nozzles; and a generation unit configured to generate the recording data for the first nozzle based on the first multi-valued gradation values of the image data corrected by the correction unit and a first dot arrangement pattern representing a number of ink droplets per the unit area to be discharged from a first nozzle according to the first multi-valued gradation values and generate the recording data for the second nozzle based on the second multi-valued gradation values of the image data corrected by the correction unit and a second dot arrangement pattern representing a number of ink droplets per unit area to be discharged from a second nozzle according to the second multi-valued gradation values, wherein the correction unit corrects the first and second multi-valued gradation values such that the larger the second multi-valued gradation values are, the larger the number of ink droplets to be discharged to the unit area from the second nozzle, in a case where the second multi-valued gradation values of the number of ink droplets to be discharged to the unit area from the second nozzle are smaller than the second multi-valued gradation values which is a maximal number from among the number of ink droplets represented by the second dot arrangement pattern, ink droplets are not discharged to the unit area from the first nozzle, in a case where the second multi-valued gradation values of the number of ink droplets to be discharged to the unit area from the second nozzle are larger than the second multi-valued gradation values which is a maximal number from among the number of ink droplets represented by the second dot arrangement pattern, the number of ink droplets to be discharged to the unit area from the second nozzle steadily decreases in accordance with a situation that the second multi-valued gradation values become large, and in a case where ink droplets are discharged to the unit area from the first nozzle, the number of ink droplets to be discharged to the unit area from the second nozzle becomes smaller than a predetermined number which is smaller than the maximal number.