Back to results
US 4,540,276 AGranted
Color photographic reproduction system
OwnerClarence S. Ostinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Loading patent…
Loading patent…
OwnerClarence S. Ostinventor
Estimating the term…
Color photo-reproduction of copy is assured by measuring and storing optical densities of the copy plus calibration data for densitometric equipment used in such measurement, as well as values of other pertinent parameters. This system involves interaction between a human operator and an inanimate assistant commonly recognized as a computer. The operator does such acts as juxtaposing a densitometric component of the system to parts of the copy, to density standards, and to trial reproductions so as to input density data retrievably to the computer memory. The operator also may supply, either by measurement or specification, actinic, chromatic, dimensional, and other relevant data. The computer displays, for the guidance of the operator, various announcements, inquiries, and instructions, as well as empirical and calculated values of data. The information variously supplied is processed by the computer according to appropriate procedures and computational rules. The methods of color photo-reproduction include producing color-corrected continuous tone masks and both indirect-screen and direct-screen color-separation negatives.
In a stepwise procedural light-integrating system of photographic exposure control, wherein a human operator causes densitometric data to be supplied to apparatus adapted to store retrievably and to process such data for quality photo-reproduction of copy in color, the improvement comprising making color-correction masks for respective colors to compensate for color-impurity of correspondingly colored inks, including densitometrically probing highlight, midtone, and shadow regions of a mask negative developed for a trial time after having been exposed for a trial number of light units, for subsequent superimposition with a corresponding color-separation negative of the copy to be reproduced prepared by photographing such copy through a filter of complementary color.
In a stepwise procedural light-integrating system of photographic exposure control, wherein a human operator causes densitometric data to be supplied to apparatus adapted to store retrievably and to process such data for quality photo-reproduction of copy, the improvement comprising making direct-screen color separation negatives, including densitometrically probing preferred highlight and shadow regions of the copy, then making main, bump, and flash exposures and developing each resulting negative, next densitometrically probing each resulting negative in highlight and shadow regions, then comparing via the apparatus resulting regional dot sizes against corresponding preferred dot values previously stored.
Color photo-reproduction apparatus, adapted by means of a camera and color filters to convert copy to be reproduced into a set of color separations characteristic of the copy colors, comprising operatively interconnected densitometric means for measuring optical densities of the copy to be reproduced and of resulting reproductions thereof, and computing apparatus including means adapted for retrievably storing data and including means for processing data to solve mathematical equations in which the data comprise values of the independent variables therein, and the resulting values of the dependent variables therein comprise the exposures in light units.
In a stepwise procedural system of photographic exposure control, wherein a human operator causes densitometric data to be supplied to apparatus adapted to store retrievably and to process related data about the photographic characteristics of diverse media to be exposed, the improvement comprising so supplying and retrievably storing such data to be processed for non-standard copy to be reproduced in color, including densitometric data for desired highlight and shadow regions of non-standard copy to be reproduced photographically, exposing such copy through a color filter, and developing a color separation negative therefrom.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.