Seiko Epson Corporation

Nao Kaneko

Yoshifumi Arai

Masami Fukuda

Yuko Yamamoto

Kazuaki Sakurada

Takashi Ito

The invention relates to a printing method of creating an image on a medium by discharging a plurality of colored inks each containing a colorant and clear ink containing no colorant from a nozzle toward the medium. Further the colored inks are discharged from the nozzle toward a unit region defined in the medium by an amount determined on the basis of respective amounts of cyan ink and magenta ink included in the colored inks to be discharged to the unit region.

Printing method and printing apparatus

A second chromaticity feature is corrected and approximated to a first chromaticity feature, a new limit value for an ink amount is determined based on the second chromaticity feature after the approximation, optimization is performed by designating an ink amount which is equal to or less than the newly determined limit value when an ink amount reproducing a hue value represented by a lattice point is determined by the optimization of the ink amount with the use of an object function for evaluating image quality when the designated amount of ink is made to adhere to a first print medium, the ink amount determined by the optimization is converted with a conversion relationship based on the first chromaticity feature and the second chromaticity feature, and a profile for a second print medium, for which the converted ink amount has been defined, is created.

Profile creation method for creating a profile defining an ink amount, profile creation program for creating a profile defining an ink amount, and printing apparatus for printing with reference to a profile defining an ink amount

A second chromaticity value feature is corrected and approximated to a first chromaticity value feature, a new limit value for an ink amount is determined based on the second chromaticity value feature after the approximation, optimization is performed by designating an ink amount which is equal to or less than the newly determined limit value when an ink amount reproducing a hue value represented by a lattice point is determined by the optimization of the ink amount with the use of an object function for evaluating image quality when the designated amount of ink is made to adhere to a first print medium, the ink amount determined by the optimization is converted with a conversion relationship based on the first chromaticity value feature and the second value chromaticity feature.

Profile creation by ink amount optimization for various print media to reproduce hue values

Provided is a printing control device capable of: a reception process of receiving designation of a printing medium; an adjustment process of adjusting a printing apparatus in accordance with a printing result of a first test pattern; a color conversion table generation process of generating a color conversion table for the designated printing medium; and a profile generation process of generating a device profile of the printing apparatus on the basis of a colorimetric value of a second test pattern by performing color conversion on data, which represents the second test pattern, through the color conversion table, and by causing the printing apparatus to print the second test pattern.

Printing control device and printing control program

A printing control device which performs printing control for printing by using color materials of a plurality of types, includes: acquiring unit that acquires a color material set which is a combination of the color materials used for printing; and creation unit that creates a color conversion profile which prescribes conversion rules for converting image data expressed by a first color space into image data expressed by a second color space which differs from the first color space and which is a color space expressed by a color material amount set which is a combination of usage amounts for the respective color materials constituting the color material set.

Printing control according to combinations of color materials

A system is configured to calculate an evaluation index of sample ink amount data from a color difference evaluation index and an image quality evaluation index and create a profile on the basis of a sample with a high rating value. When the image quality evaluation index is predicted, the image quality evaluation index corresponding to any sample ink amount data is estimated based on a profile produced on the basis on actual evaluation. A printer driver is configured to create a plurality of profiles by using different indices in this system and to perform color conversion by using the plurality of profiles. The plurality of profiles are appropriately selected according to the user's needs, printing conditions, and type of printing object image.

Production of color conversion profile for printing

An image data conversion apparatus for embedding a second image into image data corresponding to a first image, comprising an embedded image acquisition unit that acquires a second image for embedding in the first image, an embedment area acquisition unit that receives a location of an embedment area where the second image may be embedded in the first image, an ink set memory unit that stores a first and second set of inks and associated quantities, wherein the second set of inks and may be substituted for the first set of inks, and an ink amount data conversion unit that converts the image data into converted ink quantity data that corresponds to the image data such that the second image embedded in the first image can be observed by making a differentiation between portions of the first image where the first and second set of ink are used.

Image data conversion into substitute ink quantities to differentiate an area in a first image where a second image is embedded

A color patch that was printed based on a plurality of test ink quantity sets prepared in advance is image inputted; a graininess index is calculated based on the inputted color patch image; the graininess index on a printing medium obtained when printing is performed according to an arbitrary ink quantity set is predicted based on a graininess profile produced based on the corresponding relationship between the test ink quantity set and the graininess index.

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Tokyo, Japan

Nao Kaneko