A method of color halftone processing is disclosed. A plurality of color mappings each provide a mapping from a color value in a color space to a set of Neugebauer Primary area coverage (NPac) values in an NPac space. An imaging metric is obtained for each NPac value in the set. An NPac value in the set is selected based on the imaging metric. The selected NPac value is used as an output NPac value in a combined color mapping for the color value.

A method and a device are disclosed for luminous printing of an original image using fluorescent ink or other fluorescent display pigments. In some embodiments, the original image is separated into multiple layers, including at least a brightness layer and an inverse brightness (or darkness) layer, by applying extracted brightness data and inverse brightness data, to the original image, respectively. Each of the layers is associated with a set of corresponding printing channels. The sets of printing channels are applied by a printing device to print the original image on a print medium, such as paper, mylar, fabric, and other print surfaces. Multiple visual effects may be realized using the aforementioned process, including fluorescent images that are only visible under UV (Ultra Violet) or black light, images with high-fidelity colors under daylight and dark conditions, and shadow effects such as depth illusion.

A color converter includes a printing color value determining unit and a determination color value calculating unit. The determination color value calculating unit calculates a determination color value in such a way that a positional relationship of a input color value relative to a input peak value, a white color value showing a color value of white, and a black color value showing a color value of black is equal to a positional relationship of the determination color value relative to the determination peak value, the white color value, and the black color value. The printing color value determining unit determines, as a printing color value, the representative color value closest to the determination color value calculated by the determination color value calculating unit in the Voronoi diagram.

One or more image processing apparatuses, one or more image processing methods and one or more storage mediums are provided herein. In at least one embodiment, an image processing apparatus includes an acquisition unit configured to acquire one or more objects, a check unit configured to perform check processing for checking whether to combine an object with another object, for each of a plurality of objects acquired by the acquisition unit, and a determining unit configured to determine, based on a result of the check processing for each of the plurality of objects, whether to perform the check processing for checking whether to combine an object with another object, for an object acquired subsequently to the plurality of objects by the acquisition unit.

A color image processing device uses a dither pattern of blocks, each including a plurality of dots representing the gradations of each pixel of an image in a prescribed print region. The dots including one block are arranged in a growth sequence in the ascending order of gradation, and print data is written sequentially at the dots the number of which corresponds to the gradation associated with the block. An extracting unit extracts a data region holding the color components from the print data. A dither processing unit generates dither patterns for the color components extracted by the extracting unit. The dither processing unit detects whether one or more of the dots including each of the pixels forming the image are outside the data region, and moves any dot outside the data region to a certain dot including the same pixel and existing in the data region.

The disclosure extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for producing an image in light deficient environments with luminance and chrominance emitted from a controlled light source.

An example embodiment may involve obtaining an ab pixel macro-cell from an image with one or more color planes, and an ab attribute macro-cell. The ab pixel macro-cell may contain 4 non-overlapping mn pixel cells, and the ab attribute macro-cell may contain 4 non-overlapping mn attribute cells. The pixels in the ab pixel macro-cell may be associated with respective color values. The example embodiment may also involve determining 4 attribute output values associated respectively with the 4 non-overlapping mn attribute cells. The example embodiment may further involve determining 1 to 4 color-plane output values for the non-overlapping mn pixel cells, and writing an interleaved representation of the 4 attribute output values and the determined color-plane output values.

A color input image comprising a plurality of pixels, each pixels encoded in RGB color space, is processed to convert the RGB pixels to another color space domain for printing the color input image. The number of colors within a cell of the input image is reduced. Each cell comprises an NM array of pixels and the number of colors is reduced to a maximum of b source colors, wherein b is a positive integer equal to or greater than 2. Each of the resulting colors of each cell is calibrated to generate a printable color. The cells are then processed to convert the pixels of each cell into another color space, for example, to determine ink vectors, in another color space, for each calibrated color.

An image processing apparatus includes a clipping unit that clips an arbitrary area from image data acquired by reading a chart output from an image forming unit, an acquisition unit that acquires a signal value relating to a plurality of positions in a scanning direction of the area clipped by the clipping unit, and a transmission unit that transmits information about the clipped area and the acquired signal value.

A color conversion apparatus includes a processor configured to: generate a first color-conversion table describing a correspondence between an input value in a first color space and a colorimetric value in the first color space, the first color space being independent of a printer, the colorimetric value being a result of color measurement of a printed image obtained by the printer printing a signal value in a second color space, the second color space being dependent of the printer, the signal value in the second color space being a conversion result of the input value; and convert an input signal value in the first color space to a signal value in the second color space by using the first color-conversion table and a second color-conversion table, the second color-conversion table being predetermined in accordance with the printer and being used to convert a signal value in the first color space to a signal value in the second color space.