Image forming apparatus which forms halftone images mixed with

Abstract

When forming an image in which a half-tone image area such as photograph, screen, or the like and characters and fine lines exist the half-tone image area and the character and fine line portion are stably reproduced without deteriorating the picture qualities of both of them and, particularly, the character and fine line portion can be clearly reproduced. A digital image signal generated from an image reader is stored into an image memory on a pixel unit basis. A CPU subsequently reads the stored digital image signal and forms a frequency distribution function (density histogram) as a detection frequency of corresponding density values every pixel. The density level value of the portion in which the detection frequency is locally high is detected from the formed density histogram. The density level values are converted into at least one density value by a gradation correction circuit. An image having an excellent gradation reproducibility in a range from a low density portion to a high density portion can be formed by the converted density value.