A data-bearing image (391) is created from a carrier image (371). The carrier image (371) is scaled to produce a scaled image. A clustered-dot halftone screen is applied to the scaled image to produce a halftone image. A resulting number of cells in the halftone image conforms to a cell count (372) that includes a horizontal cell value and a vertical cell value. Payload data is encoded into the halftone image to produce a data-bearing halftone image, including shifting pixel clusters within cells of the halftone image that include pixel clusters.

A graphical indicator comprising a plurality of first header blocks, a plurality of second header blocks and a plurality of data blocks for forming an indicator matrix is provided. Each of the first and second header blocks has a header graphical micro-unit, and each of the data blocks has a data graphical micro-unit. An array area is formed by the second header blocks and the data blocks. A first virtual line and a second virtual line are respectively formed by virtual centers of the first and second header blocks, and an included angle between the first and second virtual lines is less than 90 degrees.

An image processing apparatus capable of changing a halftone pattern set to a coding pattern that will be synthesized with an image to another halftone pattern that can uniformly generate the coding pattern when the coding pattern cannot be uniformly generated in performing a halftone process using the halftone pattern set to the cording pattern. A setting unit sets a halftone pattern used in a halftone process from among a plurality of halftone patterns. A determination unit determines whether a coding pattern can be uniformly generated when the halftone process is performed using the halftone pattern set by the setting unit as the coding pattern to be synthesized with an image to be printed. A changing unit changes a halftone pattern used in the halftone process to another halftone pattern capable of uniformly generating the coding pattern when the determination unit determines that the coding pattern cannot be uniformly generated.

Techniques disclosed herein provide an approach using pixel perturbation to transmit information. In one embodiment, a pixel perturbation engine perturbs pixels of an image to encode meta-information therein. In particular, the perturbation engine may perform controlled perturbation of pixel bits which are unlikely to affect visual quality are perturbed, such as perturbing the least significant bits in one or more channels of a RGB or YUV image. Higher order bits may also be perturbed in color channels such as the blue or UV channels that the human eye is less sensitive to. To mitigate loss of information, the information may be encoded using error correcting codes. After the image having meta-information encoded therein is transmitted to a client device, the meta-information may be recovered and used to determine performance of the virtual desktop infrastructures (VDI) system.

A method, non-transitory computer readable medium and apparatus for generating a multi-layer correlation mark via a monochrome printer are disclosed. For example, the method includes setting a first scalar value of a channel of the monochrome printer, setting a second scalar value of the channel of the monochrome printer, generating a first layer of the multi-layer correlation mark at the first scalar value of the channel, generating a second layer of the multi-layer correlation mark at the second scalar value of the channel and printing the multi-layer correlation mark comprising the first layer at the first scalar value of the channel and the second layer at the second scalar value of the channel.

A printing method detects a density of a first black image to be printed in a first black color; determines, when the detected density is equal to a first density, a size of a first character to be embedded in the first black image to a first size, and prints the first character at the first size in a second black color with a transmissivity at a near infrared ray band that is different from that of the first black color; determines, when the detected density is lower than the first density, a size of the first character to a second size larger than the first size, and prints the first character at the second size in the second black color; and prints a region except a region in which the first character is to be printed in the first black image, in the first black color.

A technique is described by which a warped security feature is created on a substrate using a hybrid vector/bitmap process. The print element follows a series of curved vector lines during printing to form the security feature, instead of the straight line-by-line process used with a bitmap image. The method of producing the warped security feature, the warped security feature, and the substrate containing the warped security feature are considered to be unique and inventive.

An image forming apparatus includes a first image forming unit, a second image forming unit, and a generator. The first image forming unit forms a first image on a basis of first image data. The second image forming unit forms a light-emittable second image on a basis of second image data. The generator generates the first image data on a basis of print data, and generates the second image data to cause the second image to be overlaid on part or all of the first image.

The present invention provides a printer responsive to commands from printer driver software. The printer driver software is characterized by being responsive to two types of input data. One of the types includes text data, and the other of the types includes watermark data. The two types of data are separately applied to printer driver software, rather than integrated together prior to application to the printer driver software.

Provided is a print data processing apparatus including an intermediate data acquisition section that acquires intermediate data which is generated from document data described in a page description language and includes plural image elements, an extraction section that extracts image elements of a watermark from among the image elements of the intermediate data acquired by the intermediate data acquisition section, a deformation section that deforms each of the image elements of the watermark extracted by the extraction section into a shape that does not include an overlapping portion between the image elements of the watermark, and an output section that outputs an image element group of the watermark deformed by the deformation section, to an image data generation device that generates image data for a printing device from the intermediate data.