Color image correction based on characteristics of a highlights or other predetermined image portion

A color image processing apparatus comprising:

• detecting means for detecting a plurality of pixels of a high saturation from a color image signal consisting of a luminance signal and color difference signals;
• operating means for calculating the average value of the color difference signals of said plurality of high luminance pixels;
• and
• correcting means for correcting the color difference signals of each of the pixels constituting the image using said average value as a maximum correction amount.

A color image processing apparatus comprising:

• means for providing a color image signal consisting of a luminance signal and color difference signals;
• detecting means for detecting the color difference signals of a pixel of a high luminance from the color image signal;
• a conversion table of correction amounts for correcting the color difference signals of each of the pixels constituting the image of said color image signal;
• and
• correcting means for subtracting the correction amounts from said conversion table from the color difference signals of each component pixel of the image,
• wherein the luminance signal and color difference signals of the pixel to be corrected and the color difference signals of one or a plurality of pixels are input to said conversion table.

A color image processing method comprising the steps of:

• detecting a highlight point in a color image;
• detecting a color component of the detected highlight point;
• supplying a luminance component of the color image other than that of the highlight point;
• and
• correcting a color component other than that of the highlight point in accordance with the luminance component and the detected color component.

A digital color image processing apparatus comprising:

• highlight point detecting means for detecting a highlight point in a color image;
• highlight point color component detecting means for detecting a color component of the detected highlight point;
• luminance signal supplying means for supplying a luminance component of the color image other than that of the highlight point;
• and
• correcting means for correcting a color component other than that of the highlight point in accordance with the luminance component and the detected color component.

A digital color image forming method comprising the steps of:

• detecting a highlight point in a digital color image data;
• detecting a color component of the detected highlight point;
• correcting a digital color component of the digital color image data in accordance with the detected color component of the detected highlight point;
• and
• forming a printed color image in accordance with the corrected digital color image data.