There is provided an ink-deposition device suitable for depositing ink on a target surface and a printing system comprising the same. In operation in a printing system, the ink-deposition device can convert digital images into ink images on the target surface using pixel-masks and methods as disclosed herein. Advantageously, the ink-deposition device, the printing system comprising it and the methods of using the same can reduce or prevent the occurrence of some undesired ink-formations typically governed by the respective physical and/or chemical properties of the surface and ink being used or mitigate their effect on print quality. Application of the pixel-image mask yields a binary image that exhibits pixel-clusters with stochastically distributed centroids.

An image forming apparatus includes a conversion unit configured to convert image data based on a conversion condition corresponding to a type of halftoning, an image processing unit configured to perform the halftoning, an image forming unit configured to form an image, a measurement unit configured to measure a measuring image, an acquisition unit configured to acquire information related to the number of the sheets on which the measuring images are to be formed, and a controller configured to generate a first conversion condition corresponding to first halftoning based on a result of a first measuring image on a first sheet, and generate a second conversion condition corresponding to second halftoning based on a result of a second measuring image on a second sheet, wherein, based on the information, the controller controls whether to control the number of the first sheets is larger than the number of the second sheets.

The present invention relates to a method and product resulting from application distortion security images in an anti-copy document, printed on demand, which may be variable and use laser printers or printer/copiers and/or ink-jet printers and/or digital presses.

A first dot pattern printed according to a result of quantization performed on a multi-valued grayscale value by using a first threshold matrix and a second dot pattern printed according to a result of quantization performed on multi-valued grayscale value by using a second threshold matrix are printed on a print medium in an overlapping manner. In order to generate the threshold matrices, a first initial pattern being a dot pattern corresponding to a first grayscale value and a second initial pattern being a dot pattern corresponding to a second grayscale value lower than the first grayscale value are generated for pixel regions of the first and second threshold matrices. Then, thresholds of the first and second threshold matrices are set such that dot patterns having continuity with the first and second initial patterns are obtained at grayscale values between the first and second grayscale values.

An image processing device includes a dithering circuit, a gradation correction pattern generating circuit, and a gradation correction pattern correcting circuit. The dithering circuit performs a dithering process on image data to generate dithered image data. The gradation correction pattern generating circuit sets, in multi-valued data, gradation information of each of pixels of the generated dithered image data, and generates a gradation correction pattern imitating the dithered image data. The gradation correction pattern correcting circuit performs pattern matching on the generated gradation correction pattern, and corrects the generated gradation correction pattern in accordance with a result of the pattern matching.

An image forming apparatus includes a forming unit configured to form a set of reference patches corresponding to different density regions through an image forming unit while making the reference patches correspond to screen types, an input unit configured to input a comparison result between each of the reference patches and criterial patches having densities as criteria at each of the screen types, and a generation unit configured to generate information for correcting a density of an image formed by the image forming unit at each of the screen types by using the comparison result input by the input unit, wherein the information generated by the generation unit for correcting an image in a highest density region from among the density regions is commonly generated according to the comparison result input with respect to each of the reference patches formed at each of the screen types.

Devices, systems and methods are disclosed for reducing an amount of moiré pattern exhibited by an image having a halftone pattern. Regions of the image including the halftone pattern may be identified and selectively blurred to reduce the amount of moiré pattern visible to a user. The halftone pattern may be detected using digital wavelets to identify high frequency patterns in the image. The halftone pattern may be blurred using a convolution matrix having a weighted average, and a transition band may be used to reduce an intensity of the blur near the edges of the halftone pattern.

An image file is prepared for printing. The image file is received. The image file includes a cell having pixels. A pixel of the pixels of the cell corresponds with a command to apply a print substance to a medium. For the pixel, the command to apply the print substance is selectively replaced with a command to not apply the print substance.

A raster image processor (RIP) for digital binary halftoning a continuous tone image (CT) by a threshold tile (TT) into a halftone raster image (RT) for a printing device capable of printing on a plurality of substrates (S.sub.1, S.sub.2, . . . , S.sub.M); wherein said processor comprises an input field in which information regarding a substrate is to be used; a memory having stored thereon a plurality of threshold tiles (TT.sub.1, TT.sub.2, . . . , TT.sub.N) for generating regularly tiled halftone dots; and a threshold selector which is capable to select said threshold tile (TT) of said plurality of threshold tiles (TT.sub.1, TT.sub.2, . . . , TT.sub.N) based on information supplied to the input field.

Wherein, in the first dither mask, when the first space is cut by the first plane, a plurality of threshold values in the first plane has a blue noise characteristic in the spatial frequency domain, and when the first space is cut by a second plane extending in a direction different from that of the first plane, a plurality of threshold values in the second plane has a blue noise characteristic in the spatial frequency domain.