A method for compensating tone value fluctuation in inkjet printing includes generating multi-bit halftone images of pixels on a computer during prepress screening for color separations with multiple tone values out of print image data, forwarding multi-bit halftone images to a control unit of an inkjet printing machine, and printing the multi-bit halftone on the machine, wherein encoded binary values of multi-bit halftone images correspond to ink drop sizes to be generated by the machine. The computer introduces additional binary values of multi-bit halftone images not corresponding to ink drop sizes in pixel positions of multi-bit halftone images where occurring tone value fluctuations are to be compensated for by modified ink drop sizes, causing additional binary values to be ignored by the machine in a regular print mode, and assigning additional binary values to modified ink drop sizes in a correction print mode.

A printing plate includes a plurality of relief areas which stand proud of a floor of the plate, each of the relief areas having an uppermost surface to which, in use, is applied a liquid which is borne by the uppermost surface and subsequently contactingly transferred to a substrate material. A predetermined pattern of depressions define a corresponding pattern of islands within the uppermost surface. The depressions within the uppermost surface include at least primary depressions of a first size and substantially geometric first cross-sectional shape, and secondary depressions, being of smaller cross-sectional area than the primary depressions and having a second cross-sectional shape which is distinctly more elongate than the first cross-sectional shape.

In a data generating apparatus, a processor acquires offset information indicating a deviation in a colorant usage used by a specific print execution unit from a standard amount of usage. The standard amount of usage is a standard quantity concerning colorant used by print execution units. The processor controls the specific print execution unit to print a first patch image and generates first control data using first read data based on the first patch image. The processor generates corrected first control data using the offset information. The processor controls the specific print execution unit to print a second patch image using the corrected first control data and generates second control data using second read data based on the second patch image. The first and second control data is for common use in the printing processes performed on the print execution units.

There is a provided a liquid droplet discharging control device which causes a liquid droplet discharging apparatus including a head, in which a plurality of nozzles are arranged in a predetermined direction, to perform printing and which is capable of executing a nearby compensation process in which, on the basis of a dot position on which a predetermined nozzle for black ink forms a dot, a nearby nozzle that forms a dot in the vicinity of the dot forms a dot and executing a composite compensation process. The liquid droplet discharging control device includes a parameter acquiring unit that acquires parameters corresponding to the degree of liquid spreading toward a periphery after adhesion of a liquid droplet to a medium, and a compensation switching unit that switches between execution of the nearby compensation process and execution of the composite compensation process on the basis of the parameters.

Systems and methods for replacing cells of an image based on some pre-determined metric are described herein. For example, systems and methods described herein may improve the functioning of a standard imaging system. For example, the systems and methods described herein may be used to post-process existing images in an imaging system based on one or more pre-determined metrics and improve the halftone images according to those pre-determined metrics.

Printing methods and systems are described herein. In one example, a method includes rasterizing a document to create color rasters and linearizing the color rasters to create high drop weight (HDW) planes and low drop weight (LDW) planes. HDW and LDW halftone planes are created from the HDW and LDW planes. The HDW and LDW halftone planes are masked to create HDW and LDW printhead maps, and the HDW and LDW printhead maps are merged into print data. The print data is sent to a number of printheads.

The present invention has a problem of suppressing liquid gathering of an interpolation dot which interpolates a discharge defective nozzle and preventing deterioration of image quality, and the problem is solved by the present invention including: an inkjet head configured to separately discharge a large droplet, a medium droplet, and a small droplet from each of a plurality of nozzles; and a control unit which forms an image in a single-pass system by discharging the medium droplets from the plurality of nozzles respectively, and forms an interpolation dot to interpolate a discharge defective nozzle by discharging a droplet from a different nozzle when the discharge defective nozzle is present, the control unit forming the interpolation dot to interpolate the discharge defective nozzle with the use of the large droplet and forming at least one adjacent dot which is in contact with the interpolation dot with the use of the small droplet.

In the case of performing halftone processing using a threshold value matrix, the memory capacity for storing the threshold value matrix is reduced without reducing the image quality of an output image. An image processing apparatus that generates a halftone image by performing halftone processing using a threshold value matrix for each piece of image data of a plurality of color planes corresponding to color materials used for printing processing, and the number of bits of a threshold value in a first threshold value matrix for a color plane whose visibility is relatively low of the plurality of color planes is smaller than the number of bits of a threshold value in a second threshold value matrix for a color plane whose visibility is relatively high of the plurality of color planes.

A method for forming a flexographic plate for an image pattern including image features. The image pattern includes an array of image pixels, wherein the image pixels include printing pixels corresponding to portions of the image pattern where ink is to be printed on a substrate by the flexographic plate. Edge regions and interior regions of the image features are identified, which are separated by gap regions. A fine texture pattern is applied to the edge regions and a coarse texture pattern is applied to the interior regions to form a textured image pattern which is used to form the flexographic plate. No texture pattern is applied to the gap regions thereby leaving gaps between the edge regions and the interior regions of the image features.

A method for forming a flexographic plate for an image pattern including image features. The image pattern includes an array of image pixels, wherein the image pixels include printing pixels corresponding to portions of the image pattern where ink is to be printed on a substrate by the flexographic plate. Edge regions and interior regions of the image features are identified, which are separated by gap regions. A fine texture pattern is applied to the edge regions and a coarse texture pattern is applied to the interior regions to form a textured image pattern which is used to form the flexographic plate. No texture pattern is applied to the gap regions thereby leaving gaps between the edge regions and the interior regions of the image features.