Patent ID: 7227552

Claim:
An image processing method comprising the steps of: detecting brightness values for RGB input image data; generating, from the RGB input image data, image data mapped on a two-dimensional space, each point in that space being represented by two coordinates, wherein the mapped image data is rg image data, a red component of the rg image data represents a ratio of the red component of the RGB input image data to the red, green and blue components of the RGB input image data, and a green component of the rg image data represents a ratio of the green component of the RGB input image data to the red, green and blue components of the RGB input image data; inputting color balance adjustment information to an operation unit representing an adjustment range, based on a user instruction; setting a color balance adjustment condition for the input image data on the basis of the brightness value of the input image data and the color balance adjustment information; performing color balance adjustment, on the basis of the set color balance adjustment condition, on the image data mapped on the two-dimensional space; and outputting the image data on which the color balance adjustment has been performed, the outputting including at least one of (1) storing that image data, (2) printing that image data, and (3) displaying that image data, wherein, in the color balance adjustment performed in said color balance adjustment step, the color balance adjusted values are determined by using the adjusted image data mapped on the two-dimensional space and the brightness value detected in said detecting step in such manner that the brightness value before the adjustment coincides with the brightness value after the adjustment.