Patent ID: 8131070

Claim:
A color processing apparatus comprising: an image signal acquisition section that acquires an image signal including an input color signal having predetermined color components; a color component preservation section that preserves at least one of the color components of the input color signal as a preserved color component; a first color conversion section that converts the input color signal into an intermediate color signal belonging to a first color space; a color gamut compression section that performs in a high dimensional color space having at least four axes, a color gamut compression for the intermediate color signal using color components of the intermediate color signal and the preserved color component, to generate a compressed color signal; a second color conversion section that converts the compressed color signal into an output color signal belonging to a second color space different from the first color space, and a function storage section that stores a function for use in the color gamut compression, the function passing through a compression target point in the high dimensional color space and a color gamut defined in the high dimensional color space, the high dimensional color space including axes of the color components of the first color space and an axis of the preserved color component, wherein: the color gamut compression section reads the function from the function storage section, finds an intersection point between the function and the color gamut of the high dimensional color space, and performs the color gamut compression so that the compression target point is converted into the intersection point; and the color processing apparatus comprises at least one of a CPU, a main memory for storing various types of software, a communication I/F, a magnetic disk unit, a display mechanism, and an input device.