A system and method enable determining a total colorant limit for printing images. The system includes memory which stores instructions for: determining a grain value for each of a set of printed patches printed on a first print media, the grain value being based upon a visual contrast sensitivity function computed for the respective patch, the set of printed patches including patches printed on the print media at different total colorant values; determining a total colorant limit for the first print media, as a function of the total colorant values and corresponding grain values for the printed patches in the set, wherein the total colorant limit is a total colorant value which corresponds to a grain value which does not exceed a threshold grain value for the first print media. A processor executes the instructions.

A method for printing a document includes receiving the document, the document including at least one element to be printed using a combination of a spot color and a print effect; receiving a spot color emulation definition for the spot color and the print effect, the spot color emulation definition including a spot color name, an indication of a device-independent color space, values for the spot color in the device-independent color space, and an additional ink parameter indicating at least one additional ink to produce the print effect; and printing the document using the spot color emulation definition.

A system is disclosed. The system includes at least one physical memory device to store calibration logic and one or more processors coupled with the at least one physical memory device to execute the calibration logic to receive an image having a blended input color comprising a first primary color value and a second primary color value, generate blend weights for the blended input color based on the first primary color value and the second primary color value, receive a plurality of transfer functions corresponding to each of the first primary color value and the second primary color values and apply the blend weights and the plurality of transfer functions to the first primary color value and the second primary color value to generate a uniformity corrected first primary color value and a uniformity corrected second primary color value associated with the blended input color.

A color printing system uses color printing management tiers to control color printing resources at a printing device. The color printing management tiers include a media type color management tier, an ink limited calibration tier, and a calibration and ICC profile creation tier. A print job includes a parameter that is used to select the management tier for color conversion operations for the print job. The parameter can include an attribute or a media type for the print job. The applicable tone reproduction curve (TRC) or ICC profile is retrieved according to the selected management tier. The TRC or ICC profile is adjusted according to an input applicable to the respective management tier. The TRC or ICC profile also is selected from a plurality of TRCs or ICC profiles, respectively.

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 liquid discharging apparatus includes a print head unit including a nozzle array with a plurality of nozzles in a sub-scanning direction, each nozzle being configured to discharge liquid onto a print medium. The liquid discharging apparatus includes a moving unit configured to move the print head unit in a scanning direction perpendicular to the sub-scanning direction with respect to the print medium, while causing discharge of the liquid onto the print medium. The moving unit is configured to move, without discharge of liquid, the print medium or the print head unit in the sub-scanning direction. The liquid discharging apparatus includes a line-pitch setting unit configured to set a line pitch by which the print head unit moves, per scan with respect to the sub-scanning direction.

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 method of creating teacher data used for creating a color prediction model that predicts a spectral reflectance of a printed matter printed using an ink amount set from the ink amount set that is a combination of ink amounts of inks used for printing, includes, in an ink amount space in which a plurality of lattice points are disposed, selecting an ink amount set from an ink amount set associated with each lattice point, according to a predetermined selection rule, acquiring a spectral reflectance of a color chart printed on a printing medium using the selected ink amount set, and setting the teacher data using the selected ink amount set as an input value and the acquired spectral reflectance as an output value.

A color prediction model creation device configured to create a color prediction model for predicting color values of a device-independent color system from an ink amount set includes: a first color prediction model creation unit configured to acquire a first spectral reflectance of a color chart printed on a first printing medium by using a first ink amount set, and create a first color prediction model for the first printing medium by learning a correspondence relationship between the first ink amount set and the first spectral reflectance; and a second color prediction model creation unit configured to acquire a second spectral reflectance of a color chart printed on a second printing medium by using a second ink amount set having a smaller number of combinations than that of the first ink amount set, and create a second color prediction model for the second printing medium by learning using the second ink amount set, the second spectral reflectance and the first color prediction model.

A system is disclosed. The system at least one physical memory device to store ink estimation logic and one or more processors coupled with the at least one physical memory device, to execute the ink estimation logic to receive a histogram for each of a plurality of color planes, receive uncalibrated drop fraction data for each of a plurality of drop sizes in a printing system, perform a direct drop fraction conversion of the uncalibrated drop fraction data to generate calibrated drop fraction data for each of the plurality of drop sizes by applying a first transfer function to the uncalibrated drop fraction data and generate estimated ink usage data for each of the plurality of drop sizes based on the histograms and the calibrated drop fraction data.