Image processing apparatus, image forming apparatus, and image processing method

Abstract

It is intended to provide an image processing apparatus capable of precisely discriminating a halftone dot region and a figure such as a character arranged on the halftone dot region and applying appropriate image processing to the halftone dot region and the character separately. An isolated point discriminating section detects presence of an isolated point and detects a size of the detected isolated point. A temporary halftone dot region discriminating sectiondetermines a temporary halftone dot region by counting the number of isolated point signals detected. Thereby, a region where isolated points concentrate is regarded as a temporary halftone dot region. An isolated point magnifying sectionmagnifies the detected isolated point signal to its original size so as to determine a magnified isolated point region. A halftone dot region restricting sectiontakes an AND computation results of the temporary halftone dot region and the magnified isolated point region. Thereby, in the temporary halftone dot region, only a place where an isolated point actually exists is regarded as a halftone dot processing region. Accordingly, in case a character or the like exists on a halftone dot region, the character is not included in a halftone dot processing region.