Direct Pattern Control Halftoning of Neugebauer Primaries

IEEE Trans Image Process. 2017 Sep;26(9):4404-4413. doi: 10.1109/TIP.2017.2713939. Epub 2017 Jun 8.

Abstract

Halftoning is a key stage of any printing image processing pipeline. With colorant-channel approaches, a key challenge for matrix-based halftoning is the co-optimization of the matrices used for individual colorants, which becomes increasingly complex and over-constrained as the number of colorants increases. Both choices of screen angles (in clustered-dot cases) or structures, and control over how individual matrices relate to each other and result in over-versus side-by-side printing of the colorants, impose challenging restrictions. The solution presented in this paper relies on the benefits of a halftone area Neugebauer separation pipeline, where local Neugebauer Primary use is specified at each pixel and where halftoning can be performed using a single matrix, regardless of the number of colorants. The provably complete plane dependence of the resulting halftones will be presented among the solution's benefits.