Abstract: The present invention provides an image processing device for processing an original image having a first number of horizontal lines parallel to one another. Each of the first number of horizontal lines includes a second number of pixels. The image processing device has a processing unit and a storage unit. The processing unit resizes the original image to an output image with a scaling factor, the output image having a plurality of target pixels. The storage unit stores a gray scale of each pixel in at least one of the first number of horizontal lines. The processing unit has a first calculating unit, a selecting unit, and a second calculating unit. The first calculating unit calculates a maximum number of horizontal lines which the storage unit is able to store at once, based on the second number of pixels, the maximum number being less than the first number. The selecting unit selects a resizing method to resize the original image based on the scaling factor and the maximum number of horizontal lines.

Abstract: An ink reduction rate is set in accordance with the type of image and the type of recording medium. For example, when a photograph is to be printed on a glossy paper with low resolution, the ink reduction rate is set to 10%. When a photograph is to be printed on a plain paper with low resolution, the ink reduction rate is set to 25%. When a document is to be printed with low resolution, the ink reduction rate is set to 50%, irrespective of the type of recording paper.

Abstract: A reduction-ratio acquiring section acquires a reduction ratio for reducing a source image into an output image. A division-number determining section determines a division number nDev for dividing each pixel constituting the source image into (nDev×nDev) division blocks, where nDev is an integer that is greater than or equal to two. A process-block-number calculating section calculates, based on the reduction ratio, a number of division blocks corresponding to a single pixel in the output image. An average-pixel-value calculating section calculates, for the single pixel, an average pixel value based on pixel values of the division blocks. The pixel values of the division blocks are pixels values of corresponding pixels in the source image. A repeating section allows the process-block-number calculating section and the average-pixel-value calculating section to repeat same processes for each pixel in the output image, thereby obtaining an entire output image.

Abstract: A method for processing an image includes: determining a reduction ratio that falls within a predetermined range; generating reduced image data indicative of a reduced image based on original image data indicative of an original image by dimensionally reducing the size of the original image to the size of the reduced image by the determined reduction ratio, the reduced image data indicating density values of pixels contained in the reduced image; and emphasizing edges in the reduced image by amplifying a change in the density values of pixels belonging to the edges in the reduced image based on the density values of the pixels contained in the reduced image.