PURPOSE: To provide a method and a device for picture processing capable of executing the edge extraction of clear gradation, and in addition, generating a picturesque picture not the picture whose nonedge part is painted out monotonously but like the picture drawn by stipple or a sand picture.

CONSTITUTION: The picturesque picture is generated by inputting picture data (S1), and inputting upper and lower thresholds for trimming and a shift value (S2, S3), and synthesizing a density value obtained by inverting the density of the picture data and shifting it by the shift value and the density value of the input picture data, and trimming the synthesized density value so as to converge within a range between the upper and the lower thresholds (S5).