Digital image appearance enhancement and compressibility improvement method and system

A method for processing a digital image having a plurality of input pixels comprising:

• for each input pixel
• receiving an input pixel window corresponding to the current input pixel;
• generating a filter identifier based on one of an edge parameter and an activity metric;
• and
• applying a filter specified by the filter identifier to the input pixel window to generate an output pixel corresponding to the current input pixel.

A method for processing a digital image having a plurality of input pixels comprising:

• receiving the digital image;
• for each input pixel
• generating a level of activity based on a first window of pixels with reference to the input pixel;
• determining whether the level of variation is in a predetermined relationship with a predetermined level of variation;
• when the level of variation is in a predetermined relationship with a predetermined level of variation, applying a first filter;
• and
• when the level of variation is not in a predetermined relationship with a predetermined level of variation, generating a measure of an edge parameter based on a second window of pixels with reference to the input pixel, selecting an enhancement filter based on the measure of edge angle, and applying the selected enhancement filter to a third window to generate an output pixel corresponding to the current input pixel.