Patent attributes
Communication with an external image output device is established via a network interface, information concerning the characteristics of the image output devices is received and is held in a back-up RAM. A multilevel image containing gray-scale information enters from an input sensor pixel by pixel and is binarized to a binary image by a binarization circuit. At this time the connectivity of the binary image is controlled based upon the characteristic information held in the RAM and the binary image, the connectivity of which has been controlled, is transmitted to the external image output device via the network interface. As a result, the connectivity of the binary image is controlled to deal with a change in binary-image reproducibility caused by differences in engine characteristics of image output devices on a network and by changes in the environment and change with time, thereby making it possible to optimize connectivity, achieve stable reproduction and improve image quality.
