IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CONTRAST PROCESSING AND INTERMEDIATE COLOR REMOVAL

This invention allows printing an image with less image deterioration with respect to a document including both text and an image. An image processing apparatus includes a pixel value acquisition unit which acquires a pixel value of a pixel as a target in an input digital image, and a pixel value correction/modification processing unit which executes a correction/modification process based on the pixel value of the pixel acquired by the pixel value acquisition unit. The pixel value correction/modification processing unit includes a contrast correcting unit which executes contrast correction based on information representing a brightness value corresponding to the pixel value of the pixel, and an intermediate color removing unit which removes intermediate color in the digital image by replacing the pixel value of the pixel by pixel values of pixels around that pixel.