Image forming apparatus and image quality enhancement method thereof

An image quality enhancement method, comprising:

• receiving a binary image and Lines Per Inch (LPI) and an angle of a dithering mask;
• generating a main window of a predetermined size within the binary image and generating a plurality of subwindows within the generated main window;
• determining if the main window includes an edge area of the binary image by applying the plurality of generated subwindows to the binary image and according to pixel values of the binary image corresponding to the subwindows;
• and
• determining a dot size of a central reference pixel at a center of the main window, according to whether it is determined that the main window includes the edge area.

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• a window generating unit to generate a plurality of windows;
• a determining unit to detect, within each window, an edge area or a smooth area based on pixel values of a binary image that correspond to the window;
• a control unit to select a calculation method for a dot size of a central reference pixel at the center of each window based on whether the window includes the edge area or the smooth area, and to determine the dot size based on the selected calculation method;
• and
• a printing unit to form an image onto a printable medium based on the binary image and the dot sizes determined by the control unit.

A method of enhancing quality of an image to be printed, the method comprising:

• generating a main window and a plurality of subwindows of the main window based on lines per inch (LPI) and an angle of a dithering mask;
• applying the plurality of subwindows to a binary image corresponding to the image to be printed;
• detecting the presence of an edge area or a smooth area based on values of pixels at pixel locations within each of the subwindows;
• and
• determining a dot size of a central reference pixel based on whether the presence of an edge area or the presence of a smooth area has been detected.