Systems, devices, and methods illuminate one or more areas on a calibration medium from a first side of the calibration medium with one or more respective light-emitting regions of a light source; detect light transmitted through the calibration medium at the one or more areas, thereby obtaining calibration-measurement information for at least one of the one or more light-emitting regions; illuminate one or more color patches on a color-measurement medium from a first side of the color-measurement medium with the one or more respective light-emitting regions of the light source; detect light transmitted through the one or more color patches printed on the color-measurement medium, thereby obtaining color-measurement information for at least one of the one or more light-emitting regions; and generate one or more transmissive measurements based on the calibration-measurement information and the color-measurement information.

A recording device includes a recording unit configured to execute recording on a recording medium using a color material of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, and a control unit configured to control recording executed by the recording unit, wherein the control unit causes the recording unit to record an edge region of black data included in image data using at least the color material of black, causes the recording unit to record an inner region on an inner side of the edge region of the black data using at least the color material of cyan, magenta, and yellow, and sets the amount of the color material of black per unit area of the edge region to be greater than the amount of the color material of black per unit area of the inner region.

Provided is quantization processing that can reduce color development defect due to dot overlapping and can output an image with reduced granularity when the image is printed by using multiple kinds of colorants. To this end, dot arrangement information for a colorant for which dot arrangement is already determined among multiple kinds of colorants is acquired for a predetermined region of the image, and an evaluation value of each pixel included in the predetermined region is derived based on the arrangement information. In addition, for the predetermined region, a target value for a predetermined colorant for which dot arrangement is yet to be determined is derived based on the image. Then, whether or not to arrange a dot of the predetermined colorant in the predetermined region is determined based on the target value and the evaluation value.

A printing system includes a printing device, a color management server, and a client device. An estimated ink use is determined for a print job within printing system. After printing operations, a baseline average ink use is determined for a set of printed pages of the print job. If the baseline average ink use varies from the estimated ink use, then a corrective action is taken to adjust ink use to be closer to the estimated ink use. The corrective action is a global corrective action for the entire document of the print job or a targeted action that adjusts only specified features or pages of the document.

An article, including a substrate; an image printed on the substrate; in which the image includes two or more types of pixels; in which the two or more types of pixels are chosen from an RGB pixel, an RGBW pixel, and a hybrid pixel; and in which at least one type of pixel, of the two or more types of pixels, includes an optically variable pigment is disclosed. A method of making and using the article is also disclosed.

An information processing apparatus includes a processor configured to: for each of values in a target device-independent color system, calculate values of some colors in a device-dependent color system including a spot color; change the values of some colors in the device-dependent color system so as to smooth changes in the values of some colors in the device-dependent color system in response to changes in the values in the device-independent color system; and for each of the values in the target device-independent color system, based on the values of some colors in the device-dependent color system after the change, calculate values of remaining colors in the device-dependent color system, and generate a color-conversion profile with the values in the device-independent color system as input and the values of some colors in the device-dependent color system after the change and the values of the remaining colors in the device-dependent color system as output.

Provided is quantization processing that can reduce color development defect due to dot overlapping and can output an image with reduced granularity when the image is printed by using multiple kinds of colorants. To this end, dot arrangement information for a colorant for which dot arrangement is already determined among multiple kinds of colorants is acquired for a predetermined region of the image, and an evaluation value of each pixel included in the predetermined region is derived based on the arrangement information. In addition, for the predetermined region, a target value for a predetermined colorant for which dot arrangement is yet to be determined is derived based on the image. Then, whether or not to arrange a dot of the predetermined colorant in the predetermined region is determined based on the target value and the evaluation value.

Systems and methods for printing data on a substrate including a color-changeable material are provided. One system includes a processing circuit and a device including an energy source. At least a portion of a printed publication is printed on the substrate using a commercial printing press based on fixed data. The device including the energy source is configured to add variable data to the substrate. The processing circuit is configured to receive the variable data and to control the energy source to change a color of the color-changeable material based on the variable data to provide at least a portion of the printed publication. The processing circuit is configured to control the energy source to change the color of the color-changeable material in-line with a flow of the substrate through one of a printing line, a finishing line, or a packaging line of the commercial printing press.

An image processing apparatus includes a judgment unit configured to judge whether a barcode is included in the obtained image data for each piece of band data corresponding to a region printable by scanning a printing unit including a plurality of printing elements once, the barcode being formed of a region in which bars are arranged side-by-side in a direction in which the printing unit is scanned over a printing medium, and a determination unit configured to determine that the number of times to perform scanning for completing printing the piece of band data judged as not including the barcode by the judgment unit is a first number of times, and that the number of times to perform scanning for completing printing the piece of band data judged as including the barcode by the judgment unit is a second number of times larger than the first number of times.

Example implementations provide a controller for controlling printing of a printer, the controller comprising: an input interface for accessing an image to be printed; an image processor to identify at least one selected feature within the image; and circuitry: a. to control printing of said at least one selected feature using a respective print operation; and b. to control printing of said image, other said at least one selected feature, using a further respective print operation; c. said respective print operation being different to said further respective print operation.