System and method for determining a billing structure for documents based on color estimations in an image path

A computer system for determining a billing structure for outputting documents comprising at least one page using an image processing apparatus, the image processing apparatus comprising an image input terminal for inputting documents and at least one processor for executing stored machine readable instructions, the system comprising:

• the image input terminal for inputting a document into image data, the image data comprising a plurality of pixels;
• and
• the at least one processor for processing the pixels of the image data into a device dependent space, each processor comprising an input and an output,
• wherein the at least one processor is configured to execute stored machine readable instructions to determine an amount of color pixels present in the input image data, and, in response to color pixels being present in the image data:
• examine the pixels of the image data to determine a pixel count of color pixels in a device independent space;
• estimate a total color pixel count of the image data to be output in the device dependent space using the determined pixel count;
• and
• determine a billing structure based on the estimated total color pixel count.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored computer executable instructions, wherein the computer executable instructions, when executed by a computer, directs a computer to perform a method for determining a billing structure for outputting documents using an image processing apparatus, the method comprising:

• receiving image data of the document, the image data comprising a plurality of pixels;
• processing the pixels of the image data into a device dependent space, the processing including determining whether any color pixels are present in the received image data, and, in response to color pixels being present in the image data:
• examining the pixels of the image data to determine a pixel count of color pixels in a device independent space;
• estimating a total color pixel count of the image data to be output in the device dependent space using the determined pixel count;
• determining a billing structure based on the estimated total color pixel count, and outputting the processed image data of the document in device dependent space.