An image processing apparatus includes circuitry configured to receive a designation of a to-be-corrected color that is a process color or a special color different from the process color and is to be corrected; identify, on the basis of the designation, a tone correction pattern, and generate rendering data of the tone correction pattern to be used for forming an image on a recording medium; obtain a standard value of the to-be-corrected color; and correct the to-be-corrected color on the basis of a difference between a color measuring result obtained from measuring a color of the image, of the tone correction pattern formed on the recording medium and the standard value.