Image processing apparatus and method

摘要

An image processing apparatus includes: an extractor to extract colors used in input data; a converter to convert signals of the extracted colors into intermediate color signals each including three color signal components including brightness; an evaluator to evaluate recognizabilities of the colors based on the intermediate color signals; a generator to generate additional image data to be added to data for ordinary image formation based on a result of the evaluation and the input data; and a color convertor to convert the input data into the data for ordinary image formation.

主权项

1. An image processing apparatus configured to convert input image data into image data for forming an image, the image processing apparatus comprising:
a color extracting unit configured to extract colors used in the input image data; a color signal converting unit configured to convert signals of the extracted colors into intermediate color signals each including three color signal components including brightness; a recognizability evaluating unit configured to evaluate recognizabilities of the colors based on the intermediate color signals converted; an additional image generating unit configured to generate additional image data to be added to data for ordinary image formation based on a result of the evaluation by the recognizability evaluating unit and the input image data; and a color converting unit configured to convert the input image data into the data for ordinary image formation, wherein the additional image data generated by the additional image generating unit is image formation data for controlling an image forming material that changes diffuse characteristics of a surface of an output medium, and wherein the additional image generating unit is further configured to generate data for forming the additional image with respect to an area of a color having a higher lightness, of a combination of colors evaluated to have low recognizabilities by the recognizability evaluating unit, if a difference between lightnesses of the combination of colors is greater than a predetermined value or if the difference in lightnesses of the combination of colors is equal to or less than the predetermined value and a difference between chroma of the combination of colors is equal to or less than a predetermined value, and the additional image generating unit is further configured to generate data for forming the additional image with respect to an area of a color having a lower chroma, of the combination of colors, if the difference between lightnesses of the combination of colors is equal to or less than the predetermined value and the difference between chroma of the combination of colors is greater than the predetermined value.