Eastman-kodak Company

Douglas W Couwenhoven

Kevin Edward Spaulding

Rodney L Miller

Steven A Billow

Gustav J Braun

Richard C Reem

Christopher Rueby

Xin Wen

Todd R Henderson

Kenneth Alan Parulski

Jeffrey Alan Small

James Albert Reczek

Raymond E Wess

David Scott Uerz

Geoffrey John Woolfe

Bhavan R Gandhi

Craig Michael Smith

Lam J Ewell

Jason C VanBlargan

Richard A Dibiase

Gilbert Allan Hawkins

Richard P Szajewski

Stephen F Pond

Huijuan D Chen

Anthony R Lubinsky

David Andrew Johnson

James R Sullivan

Qing Yu

James S Newkirk

Gregory Rombola

Bradley A Phillips

James A Mott

Manh Tang

Thomas P Szumla

Yang Shi

John R D'Errico

Edward A Hauschild

Kenneth D Stack

Donald J Hodge

Christopher R Hauf

Guy E Light

A method of printing with an inkjet printer, the method includes moving the carriage along a first carriage scan direction while the second drop ejector array ejects drops of anti-curl solution onto the portion of recording medium providing a delay time that is greater than 15 milliseconds after the second drop ejector ejects drops of anti-curl solution at a given location on the portion of recording medium and before printing with the first drop ejector array moving the carriage along a second carriage scan direction while the first drop ejector array ejects drops of ink in an image-wise fashion onto the given location of the portion of recording medium.

Method of printing with anti-curl solution

A method for modifying an input digital image having three color channels, to form a modified digital image suitable for use by an inkjet printer having reduced ink bleed artifacts comprising computing a transformed digital image containing at least a black color channel and a color dependent scale factor channel, computing a filtered black color channel using a convolution operation, and forming the modified digital image in response to the corresponding pixel values of the color dependent scale factor channel and the filtered black color channel, so that when the modified digital image is used to produce a printed image on an inkjet printer there are reduced ink bleed artifacts.

Reducing ink bleed artifacts for RGB images

A method of using an inkjet printer to print an input digital image containing at least one color channel having a plurality of rows and columns of pixels sampled at a first resolution, each pixel having a code value, includes partitioning the input digital image into a set of spatially non-overlapping blocks; computing an average code value for each block responsive to the pixels in the input digital image that correspond to the block; computing an image quality score for each block responsive to the average code value for that block; determining a print mode in response to the image quality scores for the set of blocks; and printing the image on the inkjet printer using the print mode.

Inkjet printing method using print modes selected in response to image quality scores

A printing method includes applying at least one of a plurality of pigmented colored inks to a receiving surface. A colorless ink is applied to the receiving surface. A majority of the colorless ink is ejected from of first nozzles on a printhead used for ejecting the colorless ink. At least 30% of an area on the receiving surface, which is passed over by the first nozzles, is covered with the colorless ink during a single pass of the printhead over the area.

Inkjet printing method for colorless ink using colorless ink printhead masks dependent on colored ink printing

A method for using a processor to process image data received from an image data source in preparation for multipass printing, comprising multitoning the image data to produce a multitoned image, using the multitone level of a pixel in the multitoned image to select a plane of a print mask, using the location of the pixel in the multitoned image to select a cell of output pixels in the selected plane of the print mask, and copying the selected cell of output pixels to corresponding locations within a print buffer.

Image data expansion by print mask

A method for reducing banding artifacts for bi-directional multi-pass printing on an inkjet printer utilizing a printhead with a plurality of ink nozzles includes defining different print masks to be used for leftward and rightward printing passes such that both the order of ink laydown and the timing between ink laydown on different passes are each substantially constant for a given horizontal position within the image, independent of the vertical position within the image; and printing an input image on the inkjet printer with the defined print masks using a bi-directional multi-pass print mode.

Bi-directional print masking

A method for multi-toning an input digital image having input pixels with two or more color channels to form an output digital image having modified output levels. The method includes determining modified output levels using a combined error signal formed from intermediate error signals for each color channel together with an error signal offset value, and adjusting the input levels for the nearby pixels responsive to weighted error signals.

Color error diffusion with error signal offset

A method for selecting the level of color inconstancy of an output image produced on a digital color printer having a neutral ink and a plurality of color inks is disclosed. The method includes analyzing the distribution of input colors present in the input digital image to determine a color distribution metric related to the importance of producing output images having a reduced color inconstancy when the output image is viewed under a variety of image illumination spectra; selecting a color transform from a set of available color transforms designed to produce output images having different color inconstancy characteristics in response to the color distribution metric; processing the input digital image using the selected color transform to produce a transformed image having a selected level of color inconstancy; and printing the transformed image on the digital color printer to produce an output image having the selected level of color inconstancy.

Adaptive color transform to control color inconstancy

A method for printing an input digital image using a digital printer having a set of colorants with substantially the same color but different densities, including a sequence of node points where each of the two or more colorants are either at their maximum or minimum values, setting colorant concentrations such that the color channel output responses corresponding to the sequence of node points are substantially equally spaced in a visually uniform color space; forming colorant control look-up tables to provide smooth transitions in the color channel output response between the sequence of node points; addressing the colorant control look-up tables with the printer code value for each pixel of the input digital image to determine the colorant control signals for each of the two or more colorants; and controlling the digital printer using the colorant control signals to produce a print of the input digital image.

Digital printing using similar colorants

A method for multi-level error diffusion halftoning an input digital image to form an output digital image with reduced error diffusion texture contouring artifacts which includes modifying the input pixel values for a fraction of the input pixels using a periodic dither signal, where the fraction is a function of the texture artifact characteristics of the multi-level error diffusion halftoning process.

Multi-level halftoning providing reduced error diffusion artifacts

A method for modifying an input digital image having one or more color channels corresponding to one or more color inks and a protective ink channel corresponding to a substantially clear protective ink, each channel having an (x,y) array of pixel values, to form a modified digital image including computing a first value responsive to corresponding pixel values of the one or more color channels; computing a second value responsive to the corresponding pixel value of the protective ink channel; and modifying the corresponding pixel value of the protective ink channel responsive to the first and second values.

Inkjet printing using protective ink

A digital imaging system is provided that includes a digital camera and a color printer. The digital camera comprises: a housing; an image sensor adapted to capture analog image data; an analog-to-digital converter adapted to convert the analog image data; an image processor adapted to perform first processing and compression of the digital image data to create a first-processed digital image file; a digital memory in the camera housing having a plurality of the first-processed digital image files stored in the digital memory; and a color printer interface to which a digital image file, which is selected from the digital memory, is applied. The color printer comprises: a color-marking apparatus, and a digital camera interface, wherein the image processor in the digital camera is adapted to perform second processing on the selected digital image file before the selected digital image file is applied.

Digital camera providing image processing for an attachable printer

A method of computing swath data in response to a digital image having a plurality of rows and columns of pixels, each pixel having a multitone code value, the swath data suitable for commanding an inkjet printer containing at least one printhead having plurality of nozzles, wherein the inkjet printer is capable of ejecting ink drops in response to the swath data.

Multilevel print masking method

A method of forming a liquid pattern according to liquid pattern data on a receiving medium using a liquid drop emitter that emits a continuous stream of liquid from a nozzle that is broken into drops of predetermined volumes by the application of drop forming energy pulse is disclosed comprising associating a pixel area of the receiving medium with a nozzle and a time interval during which a plurality of fluid drops ejected from the nozzle can impinge the pixel area of the receiving medium. The time interval is divided into a plurality of subintervals that are, in turn, grouped into a plurality of blocks. Each block is defined as a printing block or a non-printing block. A drop forming energy pulse is provided between each pair of consecutive blocks and between the subintervals of each printing block. No drop forming energy pulses are provided between the subintervals of the non-printing blocks. The so-formed energy pulse sequence is applied to the stream of liquid causing the formation of small print drops and large non-print drops. The liquid pattern is formed on the receiver of print drops comprised of liquid emitted during subintervals associated with printing blocks. The block configuration is designed to ensure that non-print drops have the proper volume. In an alternate set of embodiments, individual subintervals rather than blocks of subintervals are individually defined as print or non-print subintervals subject to a non-print drop rule that forces non-print drops to be formed of adequate volume for differentiation from print drops and a maximum drop rule that ensures that non-print drops are not too large to be reliably captured and guttered.

Output image processing for small drop printing

Growing community of inventors

Fairport, NY, United States of America

Douglas W Couwenhoven