Efficient and flexible multi-bit halftoning
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
InventorEugene A. Roylance
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An implementation of a technology, described herein, for efficient and flexible multi-bit halftoning on a marking device, such as a printer. At least one implementation of the technology, described herein, performs multi-bit halftoning with hardware (e.g., circuitry) rather than a programmable processor. Furthermore, at least one implementation performs multi-bit halftoning for a variable number of bits per pixel and a variable resolution. This abstract itself is not intended to limit the scope of this patent. The scope of the present invention is pointed out in the appending claims.
Claims19
A hardware-based multi-bit halftoning system for use with a marking engine, the system comprising:
- a raster-data obtainer circuitry configured to obtain raster data, the data including pixels and their grayscale values;
- a threshold memory configured to store a matrix of threshold values;
- a threshold loader circuitry configured to load the threshold memory with the matrix such that the resolution of the loaded matrix matches the resolution of the raster data;
- and
- a comparator circuitry configured to concurrently compare the threshold values of multiple entries in the matrix to the grayscale values of corresponding multiple pixels of the raster data.
A hardware-based multi-bit halftoning system for use with a marking engine, the system comprising:
- a raster-data obtainer circuitry configured to obtain raster data, the data including pixels and their grayscale values;
- a threshold memory configured to store a matrix of threshold values;
- a threshold loader circuitry configured to load the threshold memory with the matrix such that the resolution of the loaded matrix matches the resolution of the raster data;
- and
- a comparator circuitry configured to compare threshold values of the matrix to grayscale values of corresponding pixels of the raster data.
With a hardware-based multi-bit halftoning module configured to flexibly and efficiently halftone raster data containing a continuous tone image, a method comprising:
- setting halftone-depth and resolution of threshold matrix;
- obtaining raster data, the data including pixels and their grayscale values;
- loading the threshold matrix with threshold values such that the resolution of the loaded matrix matches the resolution of the raster data;
- and
- comparing thresholds in the matrix to the grayscale data of corresponding pixels of the raster data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.