The dither mask generation method includes: a process of setting a nozzle pattern indicating correspondence relation between individual pixels of the dither mask and the nozzles in charge of recording of respective pixel positions; a process of setting dot priority pixels to be candidates of a pixel to set a threshold among the pixels of the dither mask, based on the nozzle pattern; a process of setting the threshold to the pixel belonging to the dot priority pixels; and a process of changing the dot priority pixels before the threshold is set to all the dot priority pixels tentatively set by the dot priority pixel setting process regarding at least some thresholds.

There are provided a printing system, a method of generating a halftone processing rule, a method of acquiring a characteristic parameter, image processing device and method, a halftone processing rule, a halftone image, a method of manufacturing a printed material, an ink jet printing system, and a program which are capable of reducing an operation load of a user and acquiring a halftone processing rule appropriate for the printing system. A characteristic parameter acquisition chart (100) including a pattern for acquiring characteristic parameters related to characteristics of the printing system is output, and the output characteristic parameter acquisition chart (100) is read by image reading means. The characteristic parameters are acquired by analyzing the read image of the characteristic parameter acquisition chart (100), and halftone processing rules that define the processing contents of halftone processes used in the printing system are generated based on the acquired characteristic parameters.

An example embodiment may involve obtaining a digital image containing a pixel block. An AM halftone may be configured to be applied to the digital image by default. The example embodiment may also involve deriving, from the pixel block, a bitmap defining foreground and non-foreground pixels of the pixel block. The example embodiment may also involve sequentially scanning horizontal lines of the bitmap to identify clusters of foreground pixels. Each pixel in a particular cluster of the clusters of foreground pixels may be either (i) the only pixel in the particular cluster, or (ii) vertically or horizontally adjacent to another pixel in the particular cluster. The example embodiment may also involve, possibly based on the clusters of foreground pixels identified in the bitmap, applying an FM halftone to the digital image, and causing the digital image to be printed with the applied FM halftone.

An image processing device which generates a halftone image includes: an image size adjustment unit which adjusts a size of the input image; and a halftone processing unit which performs halftone processing on the input image size-adjusted to generate a halftone image, wherein: the image size adjustment unit adjusts the input image to a same size in two or more printing modes among the plurality of printing modes, and the input image of the same size is subjected to the halftone processing; the unit limits arrangement of dots constituting the halftone image to dot arrangeable places of a selected printing mode among the plurality of printing modes, and performs the halftone processing based on an error diffusion method using an error diffusion coefficient matrix according to the selected printing mode; and the functions performed by the image size adjustment unit and the halftone processing unit are achieved using a computer.

An image processing device includes a dithering circuit, a gradation correction pattern generating circuit, and a gradation correction pattern correcting circuit. The dithering circuit performs a dithering process on image data to generate dithered image data. The gradation correction pattern generating circuit sets, in multi-valued data, gradation information of each of pixels of the generated dithered image data, and generates a gradation correction pattern imitating the dithered image data. The gradation correction pattern correcting circuit performs pattern matching on the generated gradation correction pattern, and corrects the generated gradation correction pattern in accordance with a result of the pattern matching.

An image processing apparatus configured to execute variable magnification processing on an image includes a position determination unit configured to serially determine pixel insertion or removal positions in the image in a direction perpendicular to a direction of the variable magnification processing, and an insertion or removal processing unit configured to execute insertion or removal processing on pixels existing at the insertion or removal positions determined by the position determination unit. The position determination unit is configured to determine, within a range defined by a position distant from an immediately previously determined insertion or removal position by a first distance in the variable magnification processing direction and a position distant therefrom by a second distance in the variable magnification processing direction, a next insertion or removal position while referring to the immediately previously determined insertion or removal position.

In order to implement preferred sharpness recovery processing for an image, an image processing apparatus which generates, based on input image data, halftone image data used for an image forming process of forming an image on a print medium. The apparatus converts the input image data into color material amount data used for the image forming process; performs, on the color material amount data, gamma correction to compensate for non-linearity of an input/output density in the image forming process; performs, on the color material amount data after the gamma correction, recovery processing to compensate for sharpness degradation of an image formed by the image forming process; and performs halftone processing on the color material amount data after the recovery processing to generate halftone image data.

An image processing apparatus of the embodiments includes: an input unit configured to input a hue signal representing a hue of an image and an image quality signal representing a texture of the image; a conversion unit configured to convert the image quality signal into a physical quantity signal indicating at least one physical quantity of a refractive index of a color material, surface roughness of an image, an area ratio of dots on an image surface, and a layer thickness of a color material in an image corresponding to the image quality signal; and a dot arrangement determination unit configured to determine a color material dot arrangement for outputting the image based on the hue signal and the physical quantity signal.

There are provided image processing device and method, a printing system, a halftone process determination method, and a program capable of determining a processing rule of an appropriate halftone process appropriate for characteristics of a printing system. An image processing device (20) according to the present invention includes characteristic parameter acquisition means (52) for acquiring characteristic parameters related to characteristics of a printing system, and halftone process generation means (58) for generating halftone processing rules that define the processing contents of two or more kinds of halftone processes of which balances of priority for a plurality of requirements required in the halftone process are different based on the characteristic parameters acquired by the characteristic parameter acquisition means (52).

An image processing apparatus includes: an image determining unit configured to determine a gradation value for each predetermined range in input image data; and a screen generator configured to arrange dot images around a plurality of growth centers in a halftone dot screen to form respective dot blocks if an input area rate indicating a ratio of black to white in dot images at the gradation value is smaller than a value at which an image defect occurs, and form bridges to connect adjacent dot blocks during a smallest gradation number if distances between the adjacent dot blocks decrease to a predetermined value or less along with growth of the dot blocks, to form a void halftone dot image.