Image processing apparatus, image forming apparatus, image processing method, computer data signal, and recording medium

An image processing apparatus includes: an accepting unit that accepts image information about each of a plurality of image elements to be synthesized; a comparing unit that compares a threshold value with a mixing ratio used in an operation to synthesize the image information according to a given mixing ratio; and a setting unit that sets an attribute of an image element in an area where the plurality of image elements are overlapped with each other synthesized according to a comparison result obtained by the comparing unit.