COLOR CORRECTING METHOD

PURPOSE:To reduce the use of color ink and to save printing cost, and to simplify circuit constitution by replacing the neutral color quantities of ink in three colors Y, M, and C with K ink, and compensating a deficiency in the neutral color quantity in a high density area with ink which has neutral color balance among three colors Y, M, and C. CONSTITUTION:An input device 10 inputs an R, a G, and a B signal which are obtained by performing a photoelectric scan on an original picture to an achromatic color separating circuit 11 to separate and extract maximum M among R, G, and B for generating a black plate signal K, and it is subtracted from a white level value W corresponding to a highlight point from a register 12 to obtain K=W-M. The R, G, and B signals are converted by a color system converting circuit 13 into an YMC system signal, and a chromatic color separating circuit 14 subtracts K from it to generate signals C2, M2, and Y2. The signal K, on the other hand, is sent to memory 15 to read gray correcting data DELTAGC, DELTAGM, and DELTAGY, which are added by adders 16C, 16M, and 16Y to C2, M2, and Y2, thereby outputting image copy signals C3, M3, and Y3 of respective ink color plates.