In this article, we describe and analyze the sources of correction error in the pattern area density proximity effect correction (PADPEC) method of Mural ct al. [F. Murai, H. Yoda, S. Okazaki, N. Saitou, and Y. Sakitani, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 10, 3072 (1992)]. By focusing on the dominant contribution to the overall error, we are able to enhance the technique further, developing the enhanced PADPEC, or EPADPEC method. EPADPEC further reduces linewidth errors by factors ranging from 4 to 11, while increasing the computation time by a factor of only 1.23. [Migrating EPADPEC to a dedicated (parallel) environment will enable the data throughput rate to be dramatically increased.]