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

An image forming apparatus, comprising:

• an acquisition unit for acquiring image data that includes a plurality of pixels;
• a first-judgment unit for setting each of the plurality of pixels as a first target pixel and performing a first-judgment as to whether the first target pixel is an isolated pixel for a judgment of a halftone-dot area;
• a first-judgment result correction unit for correcting results of the first-judgment, to determined isolated pixels to be used in a second-judgment;
• a second-judgment unit for setting each of the plurality of pixels as a second target pixel and performing the second-judgment as to whether the second target pixel is in a halftone-dot area, by referring to the corrected results of the first-judgment;
• an image correction unit for correcting the image data in accordance with results of the second-judgment;
• and
• an image forming unit for forming an image based on the image data corrected by the image correction unit.

An image processing method, comprising:

• an acquisition step for acquiring image data that includes a plurality of pixels;
• a first-judgment step for setting each of the plurality of pixels as a first target pixel and performing a first-judgment as to whether the first target pixel is an isolated pixel for a judgment of a halftone-dot area;
• a first-judgment result correction step for correcting results of the first-judgment, to determine isolated pixels to be used in a second-judgment;
• and
• a second-judgment step for setting each of the plurality of pixels as a second target pixel and performing the second-judgment as to whether the second target pixel is in a halftone-dot area, by referring to the corrected results of the first-judgment.