Abstract: An apparatus and method for enhancing image data elements used to form a gray scale image are disclosed. The apparatus includes an adaptive neighborhood mask that is applied to a group of data image elements centered about a selected pixel to segregate the elements into center and surround regions about the selected element or pixel. The mask further modifies the elements with weighting factors to derive a contrast vector for the selected data elements in the adaptive neighborhood. This vector is compared to a smoothing window and a pair of edge enhancement windows to determine whether the selected element requires smoothing or enhancement to more clearly define a surface or an edge, respectively. If the element requires smoothing or enhancing, its gray scale value is modified, otherwise it is not modified. The device performs this task for each data element.