System for reproducing images and method thereof

A system for producing successive generations of quality reproductions of an image, each on a respective recording medium, each reproduction having the image thereon and indicia representative of the image printed on the image, the system comprising:

• (a) an image acquisition device associated with a recording medium for acquiring the image and converting the image into the indicia representative of the acquired image;
• (b) an image forming device connected to said image acquisition device for printing the image and the indicia onto the recording medium wherein said recording medium has the indicia appended over the surface of the image as a compressed data image file;
• (c) a sensor disposed in sensing relationship with the indicia printed on the recording medium for sensing the indicia and for generating an output signal in response to the indicia sensed thereby;
• and
• (d) an image reproduction device connected to said sensor for accepting the output signal and for generating the quality reproduction of the image in accordance with the output signal.

A system for producing a quality reproduction of an image, comprising:

• (a) an image acquisition device for acquiring the image and converting the image into a digitally encoded data image file representative of the image;
• (b) an image forming device connected to said image acquisition device for receiving the data image file, decoding the data image file and printing the data image file onto a recording medium in the form of a quality reproduction of the image and indicia invisibly printed on the image and comprising a digitally encoded compressed data image file representative of the image wherein said recording medium has the indicia appended over the surface of the image as a compressed data image file;
• (c) a sensor disposed to sense the indicia printed on the recording medium for sensing the indicia and for generating an output signal representing the indicia sensed thereby in the form of a digitally encoded compressed data image file;
• and
• (d) an image reproduction device connected to said sensor for receiving the output signal and decoding and decompressing the data image file, the image reproduction device adapted to thereafter generate the quality reproduction of the image in accordance with the output signal.

A method of producing a quality reproduction of an image, comprising the steps of:

• (a) providing a recording medium having the image thereon and indicia representative of the image appended to the image wherein said recording medium has the indicia appended over the surface of the image as a compressed data image file;
• (b) sensing the indicia and generating an output signal in response to the indicia sensed thereby by disposing a sensor in sensing relationship to the indicia;
• and
• (c) accepting the output signal and generating the quality reproduction of the image in accordance with the output signal by operating an image reproduction device coupled to the sensor.

A method of producing a quality reproduction of an image, comprising the steps of:

• (a) acquiring the image by using an image acquisition device, the image acquisition device converting the image into indicia representative of the image;
• (b) printing the image and indicia onto a recording medium by operating an image forming device coupled to the image acquisition device wherein in said printing said recording medium has the indicia printed so as to be appended over the image as a compressed image data file;
• (c) disposing a sensor in sensing relationship to the indicia and sensing the indicia printed on the recording medium and generating an output signal in response to the indicia sensed;
• and
• (d) in response to the output signal generating the quality reproduction of the image in accordance with the output signal by operating an image reproduction device that is coupled to the sensor.