Abstract: An image processing apparatus configured to generate print data used for recording image data expressing halftone dots by an image forming apparatus includes an input unit configured to input image data expressing halftone dots, an obtaining unit configured to obtain color tone information indicating color tone for each pixel or for each area including a plurality of pixels in the image data, a conversion unit configured to perform multivalue conversion of the image data based on a degree of smoothing according to the color tone information, a color separation processing unit configured to perform color separation on the image data which has been multi-valued by the conversion unit, and a halftone processing unit configured to convert image data which has been color-separated by the color separation processing unit into print data.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus for generating a dot pattern by halftone processing using a plurality of threshold matrices, the apparatus comprising a first tone group including at least a pair of discontinuous tone levels, and a second tone group including tone levels different from the tone levels included in the first tone group, wherein, in each of the first tone group and the second tone group, a dot pattern representing each tone level includes all the dots representing brighter tone level.