Image processing apparatus capable of varying magnification of images and method of using same

摘要

The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus for carrying out a variable scale magnification processing for contracting or enlarging an original image. The image processing apparatus including a variable scale moving unit for increasing pixels in accordance with a variable scale magnification in order to enlarge the original image includes a smoothing processing unit for smoothing pixel data. The smoothing processing unit detects the number of increased pixels for each pixel by an increased pixel number determining unit, so as to smooth image data output from the variable scale magnification moving unit by employing smoothing filters of a matrix size selected in accordance with the result of the detection. This results in an image processing apparatus that can prevent a degradation in image quality by an appropriate smoothing processing independently of whether a variable scale magnification in enlargement is integer or not.