The present invention relates to an image processing device and method, program and recording medium for achieving grayscale compression capable of suppressing image quality degradation using a simple configuration. A detection section 63 performs a detection process of a signal Y′ that has been subjected to the processes of a luminance signal generating section 61 and perception equalization section 62, thus finding average intensities of lighting in bright and dark areas of an input image. A control MPU 64 finds adaptation gains kAr and kBr based on the average intensities. Processing the signal Y′ with an edge-preserving LPF 65 provides a lighting component signal Y′lp. A detail extraction section 66 computes the difference between the signal Y′ and lighting component signal Y′lp, thus extracting a detail component signal Y′de of the image of the signal Y′. Thereafter, the lighting component of the signal Y′ is subjected to grayscale compression by a tone curve process section 68, while the detail component of the image of the signal Y′ is subjected to grayscale compression by a detail adjustment section 67.