A technique for selective enhancement of black including printing a non-black color at pixel locations identified by a candidate pixel array and which correspond to marked pixels in a predetermined pixel pattern, wherein the candidate pixel array comprises a plurality of N-pixel candidate tiles respectively associated with N-pixel image tiles of a black half-toned bit map, wherein an N-pixel candidate tile includes marked pixels only if the associated N-pixel image tile comprises a portion of a half-toned uniform region and the number of marked pixels in the associated N-pixel image tile is at least a predetermined percentage of N, and wherein the number of marked pixels in some of the N-pixel candidate tiles is less than the number of marked pixels of the associated N-pixel image tile.