Image processing method and system

An image processing system for processing an original image signal made up of a plurality of image signal components each representing a pixel of an original image and obtaining a final processed image signal, the system comprising

• a granularity suppressing means which carries out processing for suppressing granularity on the original image signal and obtains a granularity-suppressed image signal,
• a sharpness enhancing means which carries out processing for enhancing sharpness on the original image signal and obtains sharpness-enhanced image signal,
• an intermediate processed image signal generating means which generates at least one intermediate processed image signal by operation based on at least the granularity-suppressed image signal and the sharpness-enhanced image signal, and
• a final processed image signal generating means which obtains a final processed image signal by taking, as the image signal component for each pixel of the final processed image signal, the image signal component for the corresponding pixel of an image signal selected from the intermediate processed image signals and the original image signal according to an indicator value calculated on the basis of the granularity-suppressed image signal, the sharpness-enhanced image signal and the original image signal.