A look-up table for use in a printing system is created. The printing system prints an input image in a print color space. The look-up table is created by accessing a predetermined look-up table representing a mapping of color values of an input color space to ink-vectors of a print color space; applying a p-by-q halftone threshold matrix to each ink-vector of the predetermined look-up table to generate a p-by-q halftone cell for each ink-vector; and creating a further look-up table which maps, at least a sample of, the color values of input color space to the at least one halftone cell.

An apparatus comprises a unit configured to generate gradation data corresponding to an achromatic color generated by combining two or more colors among a plurality of colors, for an excess amount of a total gradation value exceeding a predetermined value, the total gradation value being a sum of gradation values of the plurality of colors used for recording a pixel of interest, and generate gradation data corresponding to the plurality of colors, based on the generated gradation data corresponding to the achromatic color; and a unit configured to quantize the generated gradation data, and generate data to control recording of dots corresponding to the pixel of interest. The predetermined value is a gradation value indicating whether or not to record the dots in an overlapping manner, in case that the dots corresponding to the total gradation value are recorded.

Provided is a magnetic tape in which ferromagnetic powder included in a magnetic layer is ferromagnetic hexagonal ferrite powder having an activation volume equal to or smaller than 1,600 nm.sup.3, the magnetic layer includes one or more components selected from the group consisting of fatty acid and fatty acid amide, and an abrasive, a C—H derived C concentration calculated from a C—H peak area ratio of C1s spectra obtained by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic analysis performed on the surface of the magnetic layer at a photoelectron take-off angle of 10 degrees is equal to or greater than 45 atom %, and a tilt cos θ of the ferromagnetic hexagonal ferrite powder with respect to the surface of the magnetic layer acquired by cross section observation performed by using a scanning transmission electron microscope is 0.85 to 1.00.

An image processing apparatus includes an input unit configured to receive first material appearance data representing a material appearance of an image, a material appearance mapping unit configured to convert the first material appearance data into second material appearance data corresponding to a material appearance reproducible by a material appearance reproducing apparatus, and a conversion unit configured to convert the second material appearance data into control data for reproducing the material appearance of the image using the material appearance reproducing apparatus. The first material appearance data includes a gloss signal corresponding to a specular gloss and a gloss signal corresponding to an image clarity.

A method of screening a continuous-tone image is configured to produce an output image to be printed on a surface. The continuous-tone image comprises a plurality of pixels having respective corresponding intended print locations. The method includes selecting a first sequence comprising a subset of the plurality of intended print locations, the first sequence being selected based on properties of the plurality of intended print locations.

For each intended print location in the first sequence, the method also includes identifying the corresponding pixel in the continuous-tone image to obtain a second sequence for an error diffusion process comprising the identified corresponding pixels in the continuous-tone image.

An image forming device is provided, including a generation part, a determination part and a printing part. The generation part generates a plurality of types of binarized image data with respect to original image data. The determination part determines the binarized image data, in which an error between each of the plurality of the types of the binarized image data and the original image data is smaller, among the plurality of the types of the binarized image data. The printing part prints the binarized image data determined by the determination part on a medium.

An image processing apparatus includes an image processor that performs error diffusion processing by applying an error diffusion matrix to multi-valued image data having pixels two-dimensionally arranged, so as to convert the multi-valued image data into binary image data. The binarization unit applies an error diffusion matrix in which the diffusion coefficient of a pixel diagonal to a focused-on pixel is greater than those of other pixels.

A determination unit determines whether a difference between a maximum value and a minimum value of pixel values of a plurality of pixels in a region of interest in N-gradation multi-valued data, where N≥4, representing the pixel values of the plurality of pixels is less than a determination threshold value. A generation unit generates M-gradation quantization data represented by an M-gradation quantization value, where 3≤M<N, based on the N-gradation multi-valued data and the determination. In a case where the determination unit determines that the difference is less than the determination threshold value, the generation unit generates the M-gradation quantization data so that each of the plurality of pixels corresponding to the region has a value that is one of two consecutive values of the M-gradation quantization values in the generated M-gradation quantization data.

Multiple first gradation values corresponding respectively to the multiple inks are quantized to generate multiple first quantized values indicating printing or non-printing of dots with the respective inks. In this case, multiple second gradation values corresponding respectively to multiple multinary colors expressible by combinations of overlapping of the multiple inks are generated based on the first gradation values. Next, the multiple second gradation values are quantized to generate multiple second quantized values indicating printing or non-printing of dots of the respective multinary colors. Then, the first quantized values corresponding to the inks to be overlapped one on top of another to express the multinary colors are generated based on the second quantized values corresponding respectively to the multiple multinary colors.

An apparatus comprises a unit configured to generate gradation data corresponding to an achromatic color generated by combining two or more colors among a plurality of colors, for an excess amount of a total gradation value exceeding a predetermined value, the total gradation value being a sum of gradation values of the plurality of colors used for recording a pixel of interest, and generate gradation data corresponding to the plurality of colors, based on the generated gradation data corresponding to the achromatic color; and a unit configured to quantize the generated gradation data, and generate data to control recording of dots corresponding to the pixel of interest. The predetermined value is a gradation value indicating whether or not to record the dots in an overlapping manner, in case that the dots corresponding to the total gradation value are recorded.