A method, apparatus and article of manufacture for providing improved print quality regardless of media smoothness is disclosed. Information regarding the smoothness of media is ascertained and the information about the media smoothness is used in the generation of an output. A selectable halftone screen is used in the print device to provide different halftone screens for different media smoothness. The halftoning screens can be changed depending on the roughness of the media being used. Pre-de...

A halftone dot threshold data rewriting unit reads halftone dot threshold data corresponding to the output resolution of a printed image generating apparatus which has been set by an output resolution setting unit, from a halftone dot threshold data storage unit, rewrites the read halftone dot threshold data into halftone dot threshold data corresponding to the output resolution of a proof image generating apparatus, and supplies the rewritten halftone dot threshold data to a binary image genera...

A system and method for effectively implementing a dither matrix for an electronic printer device may preferably create an improved dither matrix with optimal threshold values for use in a corresponding dither tile. During a matrix populating procedure for assigning tile threshold values for the dither matrix, the dither tile may preferably be embedded within a larger frame area of additional adjacent frame cells. A design entity may then preferably compute various cost functions when the additi...

Apparatus and method for flexible digital halftoning are provided in which novel pattern choices are allowed by not restricting the basic halftone patterns to grow sequentially. Rather, positions in a threshold array allow multiple transitions between on (i.e., printed with toner/ink) and off (not printed) as a function of the input value at the corresponding position. In one embodiment, multiple threshold matrices are employed and the output decision is a vote (e.g., exclusive OR) of the output...

A method for adjusting dot-gain for a halftone binary bitmap file by inputting a halftone binary bitmap file comprising binary pixels to a digital filter, filtering the binary pixels with the digital filter generating a weighted sum of the binary pixels producing a first set of multilevel pixels, filtering the binary pixels with a second digital filter producing a second set of multilevel pixels, sampling the second set of multilevel pixels at a preset sample rate identifying a set of sampled mu...

This invention is a screening method. The input image is divided into a plurality of supercells. These supercells are divided into a plurality of individual cells. An expanded cell is defined larger than each of the individual cells. A map of an input gray scale tone to an output gray scale tone is defined for each pixel of the expanded cell. The screening takes place for each pixel of the input image. First the method determines a pixel of the expanded cell corresponding to the input pixel. The...

The invention provides a method and an apparatus for dithering, and inversely dithering an image. The apparatus makes use of a pixel address and a pixel data to locate a dither reference value from a dither matrix and use the dither reference value to convert an original pixel data having N bits into a dithered pixel data having M bits (N>M). On the other hand, the apparatus for performing an inversely dithering process makes use of the pixel address and the dithered pixel data (M bits) to lo...

A method of recording dot-by-dot and line-by-line in a predetermined raster structure, picture signals obtained by scanning picture originals, with a raster rotated with respect to the recording direction, the picture signals and the raster signals being superimposed, and repetition, raster being recorded in a finer resolution than the picture content, in which a raster angle of rotation having a rational tangent is employed, produce raster signals which correspond to the structural content of a...

The instantaneous analog output of a scanning device is converted to one of a plurality of digital signals each of which corresponds to a different level of the analog signal. The output of the scanning device is a function of the local intensity of a pattern and the digital signals appear at a plurality of individual output terminals. An engraving device includes a plurality of input terminals which control its cutting movement, and these input terminals are connected to the digital output term...

A method for the raster reproduction of half-tone pictures wherein a picture is scanned photoelectrically dot-by-dot and voltage values are generated and quantified to represent brightness ranges and wherein an alternating voltage is superimposed on the voltage values before they are quantified to generate a mixing of dot sizes indicative of one brightness range with dot sizes indicative of another adjacent brightness range and to cause the mixing to occur in such a pattern as to make transition...