PURPOSE: To provide the picture processing unit in which longitudinal and lateral 2-dimensional optional variable magnification processing is attained with high quality, an input binary picture is subjected to multi-valued processing and variable magnification processing, and picture quality deterioration is solved through the print by a multi-value processing engine.

CONSTITUTION: The processing unit is provided with a binary image area separate means 401 applying image area separate processing to a binary picture and a multi-value processing means 402 applying multi-value processing of edge interpolation type to a picture recognized as a character and line drawing area and applying multi-value processing to an area recognized as a photograph or a graphic picture with an averaging filter.