There are provided a printing system, a method of generating a halftone processing rule, a method of acquiring a characteristic parameter, image processing device and method, a halftone processing rule, a halftone image, a method of manufacturing a printed material, an ink jet printing system, and a program which are capable of reducing an operation load of a user and acquiring a halftone processing rule appropriate for the printing system. A characteristic parameter acquisition chart including a pattern for acquiring characteristic parameters related to characteristics of the printing system is output, and the output characteristic parameter acquisition chart is read by image reading means. The characteristic parameters are acquired by analyzing the read image of the characteristic parameter acquisition chart, and halftone processing rules that define the processing contents of halftone processes used in the printing system are generated based on the acquired characteristic parameters.

A method for applying a pattern on a mask layer includes obtaining an image file representing pixels with a first pixel size in a first direction parallel to an edge of the pixel, and a second pixel size in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, where the first and second pixel size are the same or different, treating the mask layer such that a plurality of areas with altered physical properties are created in the mask layer, the plurality of areas corresponding to a plurality of pixels of the image file, where the treatment is done such that a first and/or a second area size of an area of said plurality of areas, seen in said first and/or said second direction, is smaller than the first and/or second pixel size, respectively.

In a threshold matrix generation method, after periodic areas are set in a matrix space and elements existing every other one in a row direction and a column direction in each periodic area is set as target elements, performed is a step of assigning threshold values ranging from one on the most highlight side to a predetermined switching threshold value sequentially to target elements in the periodic areas. Assuming that elements to which threshold values are assigned are regarded as determined elements, in the step, under a condition that the number of determined elements is almost same in the periodic areas and each determined element is positioned in a vicinity of any one determined element in each periodic area, a target element whose distance to all determined elements is largest is specified within the periodic areas and a threshold value is assigned to the target element.

An image forming apparatus includes: a scanning unit configured to form an electrostatic latent image on a photoconductor by scanning the photoconductor with one or more scanning beams in a main scanning direction based on an image signal, repetitively in a sub-scanning direction perpendicular to the main scanning direction; a generating unit configured to perform halftone processing on image data to generate the image signal; and a storage unit configured to store correction information. The correction information is set such that start positions of a plurality of scanning lines are linearly displaced to either a negative side or a positive side of the main scanning direction along the sub-scanning direction, in accordance with a direction of a first vector forming a smaller angle with the sub-scanning direction among two vectors in the halftone processing.

An image forming apparatus includes: a scanning unit configured to form an electrostatic latent image on a photoconductor by scanning the photoconductor with one or more scanning beams in a main scanning direction based on an image signal, repetitively in a sub-scanning direction perpendicular to the main scanning direction; a generating unit configured to perform halftone processing on image data to generate the image signal; and a storage unit configured to store correction information. The correction information is set such that start positions of a plurality of scanning lines are linearly displaced to either a negative side or a positive side of the main scanning direction along the sub-scanning direction, in accordance with a direction of a first vector forming a smaller angle with the sub-scanning direction among two vectors in the halftone processing.

A system is disclosed. The system includes at least one physical memory device to store calibration logic and one or more processors coupled with the at least one physical memory device to execute the calibration logic to receive an image having a blended input color comprising a first primary color value and a second primary color value, generate blend weights for the blended input color based on the first primary color value and the second primary color value, receive a plurality of halftone designs corresponding to each of the first primary color value and the second primary color values and apply the blend weights and the plurality of halftone designs to the first primary color value and the second primary color value to generate a uniformity corrected halftone design associated with the first primary color value and a uniformity corrected halftone design associated with the second primary color value.

A system is disclosed. The system includes at least one physical memory device to store calibration logic and one or more processors coupled with the at least one physical memory device to execute the calibration logic to receive an image having a blended input color comprising a first primary color value and a second primary color value, generate blend weights for the blended input color based on the first primary color value and the second primary color value, receive a plurality of halftone designs corresponding to each of the first primary color value and the second primary color values and apply the blend weights and the plurality of halftone designs to the first primary color value and the second primary color value to generate a uniformity corrected halftone design associated with the first primary color value and a uniformity corrected halftone design associated with the second primary color value.

A system is disclosed. The system includes at least one physical memory device to store drop size logic and one or more processors coupled with the at least one physical memory device to execute the drop size logic to receive first ink usage amount data for each of a plurality of color planes associated with a first halftone design and print job data, receive first ink drop size data for each of a plurality of color planes associated with the first halftone design, receive second ink drop count data for each of the plurality of color planes associated with a second halftone design and the print job data and determine second ink drop size data for each of the plurality of color planes based on the corresponding first ink usage amount data, the first ink drop size data and the second ink drop count data.

A system is disclosed. The system includes at least one physical memory device to store drop size logic and one or more processors coupled with the at least one physical memory device to execute the drop size logic to receive first ink usage amount data for each of a plurality of color planes associated with a first halftone design and print job data, receive first ink drop size data for each of a plurality of color planes associated with the first halftone design, receive second ink drop count data for each of the plurality of color planes associated with a second halftone design and the print job data and determine second ink drop size data for each of the plurality of color planes based on the corresponding first ink usage amount data, the first ink drop size data and the second ink drop count data.

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.