System and method for performing halftone processing of color and monochrome data

An image processing system for creating gamma correction data for a hardcopy device, comprising:

• an image data generator which generates a data pattern, the data pattern including data representing color pixels and monochrome pixels;
• an image processor configured to dither the color pixels of the data pattern and to error diffuse the monochrome pixels of the data pattern, wherein the dithered color pixels and the error diffused monochrome pixels are each N-bit values, N being greater than one;
• a hardcopy device which generates a test pattern based on the dithered color pixels and the error diffused monochrome pixels output from the image processor;
• a scanner which scans the test pattern into scanned image data;
• and
• a gamma correction curve generator configured to generate a plurality of color gamma correction curves and a monochromatic gamma correction curve from the scanned image data output from the scanner.

A method for creating gamma correction data for an image processing system, comprising:

• generating a data pattern, the data pattern including data representing color pixels and monochrome pixels;
• applying image processing to the color pixels of the data pattern and the monochrome pixels of the data pattern, wherein the image processed color pixels and monochrome pixels are each N-bit values, N being greater than one;
• generating a test pattern based on the image processed color pixels and monochrome pixels;
• scanning the test pattern into scanned image data;
• and
• generating a plurality of color gamma correction curves and a monochromatic gamma correction curve from the scanned image data.

An image processing system for creating gamma correction data for a hardcopy device, comprising:

• an image data generator which generates a data pattern, the data pattern including data representing color pixels and monochrome pixels;
• an image processor configured to apply image processing to the color pixels of the data pattern and to the monochrome pixels of the data pattern, wherein the image processed color pixels and the image processed monochrome pixels are each N-bit values, N being greater than one;
• a hardcopy device which generates a test pattern based on the image processed color pixels and the image processed monochrome pixels output from the image processor;
• a scanner which scans the test pattern into scanned image data;
• and
• a gamma correction curve generator configured to generate a plurality of color gamma correction curves and a monochromatic gamma correction curve from the scanned image data output from the scanner.