Image Processing Apparatus and Image Processing Method for Supressing Jaggies in the Edge Portions of Image

An image processing apparatus for suppressing jaggies in second image data on the basis of first image data, the second image data obtained by executing halftoning processing for the first image data, and attribute data representing an attribute of each pixel contained in the first image data, comprising:

• determination means for determining whether or not to execute smoothing processing on the basis of the attribute data, and outputting a judgment signal indicating the determination result;
• edge correction generation means for generating edge correction data from the first image data by executing smoothing processing in accordance with the judgment signal;
• and
• selection means for comparing pixel data of the second image data with pixel data of the edge correction data output by said edge correction generation means and selecting the pixel data having a higher density.