A method and system for enhancing images utilizes the direction of a detected edge within an image block of an input image to selectively smooth or sharpen a pixel of the input image that corresponds to that image block. The direction of a detected edge within the image block is determined by computing the horizontal gradient and the vertical gradient, and then using the ratio of the computed gradients. In an exemplary embodiment, the method and system is designed to exclusively use bit shifting to perform multiplications, rather than using digital signal processing. Consequently, the method and system is suitable for implementation in printer firmware and/or hardware.