Halftoning is a crucial part of image reproduction in print. First-order frequency modulated (FM) halftones, in which the single dots are stochastically distributed, are widely used in printing technologies, such as inkjet, that are able to stably print isolated dispersed dots. Printers, such as laser printers, that utilize electrophotographic technology are not able to stably print the isolated dots and, therefore, use clustered-dot halftones. Periodic clustered-dot, i.e., amplitude modulated halftones are commonly used in this type of printer, but they suffer from an undesired periodic interference pattern called moiré. An alternative solution is to use second-order FM halftones in which the clustered dots are stochastically distributed. The iterative halftoning techniques that usually result in well-formed halftones operate on the whole input image and require extensive computations and thus, are very slow when the input image is large. We introduce a method to generate image-independent threshold matrices for first- and second-order FM halftoning. The first-order threshold matrix generates well-formed halftone patterns and the second-order FM threshold matrix can be adjusted to produce clustered dots of different sizes, shapes, and alignment. Using predetermined and image-independent threshold matrices makes the proposed halftoning method a point-by-point process and thereby very fast.
KEYWORDS: Color prediction, Printing, CMYK color model, RGB color model, Halftones, Reflectivity, Statistical modeling, Inkjet technology, Binary data, Color difference
In printing, halftoning algorithms are applied in order to reproduce a continuous-tone image by a binary printing system. The image is transformed into a bitmap composed of dots varying in size and/or frequency. Nevertheless, this causes that the sparse dots found in light shades of cyan (C) and magenta (M) appear undesirably noticeable against white substrate. The solution is to apply light cyan (Lc) and light magenta (Lm) inks in those regions. In order to predict the color of CMYLcLm prints, we make use of the fact that Lc and Lm have similar spectral characteristics as C and M respectively. The goal of this paper is to present a model to characterize a five-channel CMYLcLm printing system using a three-channel color prediction model, where we treat the ink combinations Lc+C and Lm+M as new compound inks. This characterization is based on our previous three-channel CMY color prediction model that is capable of predicting both colorimetric tri-stimulus values and spectral reflectance. The drawback of the proposed model in this paper is the requirement of large number of training samples. Strategies are proposed to reduce this number, which resulted in expected larger but acceptable color differences.
The tone value increase in halftone printing commonly referred to as dot gain actually encompasses two fundamentally different phenomena. Physical dot gain refers to the fact that the size of the printed halftone dots differs from their nominal size, and is related to the printing process. Optical dot gain originates from light scattering inside the substrate, causing light exchanges between different chromatic areas. Due to their different intrinsic nature, physical and optical dot gains need to be treated separately. In this study, we characterize and compare the dot gain properties for offset prints on coated and uncoated paper, using AM and first and second generation FM halftoning. Spectral measurements are used to compute the total dot gain. Microscopic images are used to separate the physical and optical dot gain, to study ink spreading and ink penetration, and to compute the Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) for the different substrates. The experimental results show that the physical dot gain depends on ink penetration and ink spreading properties. Microscopic images of the prints reveal that the ink penetrates into the pores and cavities of the uncoated paper, resulting in inhomogeneous dot shapes. For the coated paper, the ink spread on top of the surface, giving a more homogenous dot shape, but also covering a larger area, and hence larger physical dot gain. The experimental results further show that the total dot gain is larger for the uncoated paper, because of larger optical dot gain. The effect of optical dot gain depends on the lateral light scattering within the substrate, the size of the halftone dots, and on the halftone dot shape, especially the dot perimeter.
KEYWORDS: Chemical vapor deposition, Color vision, RGB color model, Image processing, Computer simulations, Eye, Cones, Color blindness, Digital color imaging, Optic nerve
Color vision deficiency (CVD) is the inability, or limited ability, to recognize colors and discriminate between them. A person with this condition perceives a narrower range of colors compared to a person with normal color vision. In this study we concentrate on recoloring digital images in such a way that users with CVD, especially dichromats, perceive more details from the recolored images compared to the original ones. During this color transformation process, the goal is to keep the overall contrast of the image constant, while adjusting the colors that might cause confusion for the CVD user. In this method, RGB values at each pixel of the image are first converted into HSV values and, based on pre-defined rules, the problematic colors are adjusted into colors that are perceived better by the user. Comparing the simulation of the original image, as it would be perceived by a dichromat, with the same dichromatic simulation on the recolored image, clearly shows that our method can eliminate a lot of confusion for the user and convey more details. Moreover, an online questionnaire was created and a group of 39 CVD users confirmed that the transformed images allow them to perceive more information compared to the original images.
KEYWORDS: Superposition, Color difference, Color prediction, Nonimpact printing, Halftones, Data modeling, Light scattering, Reflectivity, Fermium, Frequency modulation
Most of the color prediction models use single dot gain curve, few assume that dot gain changes when ink superposition
happens, but still, use single dot gain curve for each ink to compensate the effective ink coverage. Considering the fact
that optical dot gain is the effect of light scattering in paper, it is reasonable that light with different wavelength might
produce different optical dot gain for each ink. In this study, for each primary ink we utilized three different curves
obtained by CIEX, Y and Z, which approximately stand for three special wavelength bands, to calculate color
coordinates. In addition, we noticed that dot gain curves obtained from the print samples with single ink printed on paper
do not work well for the prints where ink is printed on another, or others. Therefore, dot gain curves for different ink
superposition situations are optimized by matching the calculated tri-stimulus values of training patches to their
measurement counterpoints. For each ink, dividing the dot gain into several dot gain actions responding to different ink
superposition situations, we got the final dot gain as a group of multiple curves that takes into account all possible 'dot
gain actions' with certain probability coefficients.
By separating the optical dot gain from the physical dot gain, it is possible to study different behaviors of color
inks on different papers. In this study we are investigating the dependency of dot gain and wavelength in color
print. Microscopic images have been used to separate optical and physical dot gain from each other. The optical
behavior of primary color inks in different absorbing wavelength bands has been studied. It has been illustrated
that the light scattering in the paper is wavelength independent, and therefore the Point Spread Function which
indicates the probability of light scattering of the paper does not change in visible wavelengths (380 nm -700
nm). We have shown that it is possible to separate two printed color inks on one specific wavelength, due to
the filtering behavior of the color inks. By considering the fact that light scattering in the paper is wavelength
independent, it was possible to separately analyze the dot gain of each color.
We present a novel halftoning technique for transformation of continuous tone images into binary halftoned separations. The algorithm is based on a successive assessment of the near optimum sequence of positions to render. The impact of each rendered point is fed back to the process as a distribution function thereby influencing the following evaluations. The distribution function is not constant over the density range. In order to be able to separate the dots adequately in the highlights the 'width or radius' of the distribution has to be made larger than in the mid-tones. The human visual system and the effect of dot gain are also taken into account in this algorithm. The notion of incremental dot gain is introduced. Since the series of positions to render are not known in advance the final necessary dot gain compensation is impossible to assess. However the incremental dot gain can be computed in advance for each configuration of dots and taken into account in the process of generating the output. Some aspects of the process have certain resemblance with error distribution based algorithms. However the raster scanning sequence of rendering the output points in usual error diffusion algorithms is completely different from the image dependent traversal described in this paper.
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