A printing system receives print jobs having pages that are separated by different levels of ink use to print the pages. The number of pages for different ink use levels are determined as well as the cost estimation to print the different pages. Ink use and cost estimates are provided on a granular level as opposed to overall ink use and costs for printing a print job. Modifications are made to one or more pages to lower ink use for those specific pages as opposed to the print job as a whole. The printing system displays the different ink use levels as well as the cost estimates.

An image forming apparatus includes: an image forming mechanism that forms a first image on a recording medium based on an image forming condition; a detector that detects a first color of the first image and a color of a foundation under the first image from the recording medium on which the first image is formed; a storage that stores reference data for specifying a relative relationship between a position of the first color in a color space and a position of the color of the foundation in the color space; and a processing circuitry, wherein the processing circuitry corrects the image forming condition based on the reference data and the first color and the color of the foundation detected by the detector.

A printing method includes: a color space conversion step; a gradation determination step of determining whether a pixel group forms a gradation; and a gradation region ink amount calculation step of calculating an ink amount of the pixel group determined to form the gradation. The gradation region ink amount calculation step includes an array information acquisition step of acquiring whether pixel values are arranged linearly, in a planar manner, or in a polyhedron manner in a uniform color space, a grating color value calculation step of determining a grating color value which is a color value of a grating point in the array, a grating ink amount calculation step of calculating, using the determined grating color value, a grating ink amount which is an ink amount of the grating point in the array, and an interpolation calculation step of calculating an ink amount of the pixel group determined to form the gradation by interpolation using the calculated grating ink amount.

The occurrence of image quality adverse effects, such as interference fringes and color bleeding, is suppressed for an object including a spot color adjustment-target color. In a case where a spot color adjustment function is made use of, the same color separation table is caused to be applied uniformly, instead of switching color separation tables to be applied to an adjustment-target color depending on whether the object attribute is text/line/graphics, or image.

A printing device includes: an ink system having a plurality of types of inks; an image input unit accepting an input of an image to be printed; a print condition selection unit accepting a selection of N types of print conditions used when printing the image, N being an integer equal to or greater than 2; an application rate input unit accepting an input of an application rate of each of the N types of print conditions that are selected; a first ink amount calculation unit calculating an expected amount of ink of each of the plurality of types of inks used when it is assumed that the image is printed using singly each of the N types of print conditions that are selected; a second ink amount calculation unit calculating an actual amount of ink used when printing the image, using the expected amount of ink corresponding to each of the N types of print conditions and the application rates of the N types of print conditions; and a printing unit executing printing of the image according to the actual amount of ink.

A color printing system includes a color management service and one or more printing devices. An ink limit is specified for a calibration operation that uses a calibration chart to obtain measurement data. Using the measurement data, a calibration tone reproduction curve (TRC) along with calibration settings is generated. The calibration TRC and the ink limit are stored. For a print job, the calibration is identified and used to retrieve the calibration TRC and the ink limit. The original ICC profile for the calibration TRC also is provided. The ink limit is used to adjust the ICC profile accordingly. The adjusted ICC profile is used for color printing one or more documents for a print job.

A method for closed-loop color control in printing machines using a computer includes initially coating a printing substrate with opaque white to set up closed-loop color control in the course of a print job, subsequently applying process colors and, in the process, color measurement strips onto the opaque white, recording the opaque white and the color measurement strips using a measuring device, and, based on data recorded by the measuring device, performing closed-loop color control for process colors and opaque white using the computer. The measuring device is an inline measuring device and is initially calibrated at a fixed position of the printing substrate, then the application of opaque white is adjusted and, when a deviation stays below a maximum deviation, closed-loop control of both the opaque white and the process colors is done using the computer by taking measurements in the color control strip.

An image processing apparatus configured to generate, using a target image data, multiple pieces of partial print data respectively for multiple partial printings such that, in a particular case where the color difference indicated by the evaluation value of the each of the partial images is larger than a particular reference value, a controller causes the image processing apparatus to identify, using the difference information, compensation target pixels including a pixel causing the color difference from among multiple pixels within the particular partial image, perform, using the difference information, a compensating process of converting a color of the compensation target pixel to a color of which color difference is small, and generate the partial print data using the particular partial image data to which the compensating process has been applied.

A printing system is disclosed. The printing 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 generate drop size data associated with a printing system based on ink deposition data for a print medium and ink drop count data.

An object of the present disclosure is to implement, at a low cost, highly accurate color calibration in a printing apparatus that performs printing using fluorescent ink. One embodiment of the present invention is an image processing apparatus that includes: a processing unit configured to perform processing relating to color calibration in a printing apparatus that prints an image on a printing medium using fluorescent printing material; and an execution unit configured to perform calibration processing of the printing apparatus based on a measured value that is obtained by measuring a patch chart for obtaining information on an amount of application of the fluorescent printing material in the printing apparatus, wherein a patch included in the patch chart is printed with the fluorescent printing material and subtractive color mixture printing material and at least one dot of the subtractive color mixture printing material covers a dot of the fluorescent printing material.