Image processing using parameters related to image input and output

Abstract

An image processing control information obtaining unit obtains input characteristic information of an image input unit and output characteristic information of an image output unit. The image processing control information obtaining unit further analyzes the state of an image input from the image input unit (that is, a target image to be processed) and obtains image analysis information. The image processing control information obtaining unit also obtains a requirement of an operator with respect to an image output from the image output unit as intentional information. An image processing parameter approximate reasoning unit approximately reasons at least one image processing parameter with respect to a predetermined image processing operation, based on the various pieces of image processing control information thus obtained. An image processing unit carries out the image processing operation according to the approximately reasoned image processing parameter and outputs the results of the image processing operation as image data to the image output unit. The image output unit prints and outputs the image data generated by the image processing unit as a resulting image. This arrangement enables a variety of image processing operations to be readily performed, in order to improve the quality of the output image.