System and method for halftone printing in a three-dimensional object printer
AssigneeXerox Corporation
InventorsMartin S. Maltz, Roger L. Triplett
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of forming halftone printed images in a three-dimensional printer includes generating halftone coverage data for a region of an image receiving surface including at least one color marking agent and a color neutral marking agent. The method further includes generating halftone image data with reference to the halftone coverage data and operating a plurality of ejectors to form a printed halftone image having a uniform thickness. A first pixel location receives a first color marking agent and at least a second pixel location receives the color neutral marking agent.
Claims14
A method of operating a three-dimensional object printer comprising:
- receiving with a controller contone image data;
- generating with the controller relative halftone coverage data corresponding to proportions of each marking agent in a plurality of marking agents that form a halftone pattern on an image receiving surface that corresponds to the contone image data, the plurality of marking agents including at least a first color marking agent and a color neutral marking agent;
- generating with the controller halftone image data corresponding to each pixel location in a plurality of pixel locations on a region of the image receiving surface with reference to the relative halftone coverage data;
- and
- operating with the controller a plurality of ejectors in a print zone of the printer to eject one marking agent in the plurality of marking agents onto each pixel location in the plurality of pixel locations in the region of the image receiving surface with reference to the halftone image data to form a printed halftone image having a uniform thickness in the region of the image receiving surface, at least a first pixel location receiving the first color marking agent and at least a second pixel location receiving the color neutral marking agent.
A three-dimensional object printer comprising:
- a plurality of ejectors configured to eject drops of at least a first color marking agent and a color neutral marking agent onto an image receiving surface in a print zone;
- a memory configured to store contone image data;
- and
- a controller operatively connected to the plurality of ejectors and the memory, the controller being configured to:
- receive the contone image data from the memory;
- generate relative halftone coverage data corresponding to proportions of each marking agent in the plurality of marking agents that form a halftone pattern on the image receiving surface that corresponds to the contone image data;
- generate halftone image data corresponding to each pixel location in a plurality of pixel locations on a region of the image receiving surface with reference to the relative halftone coverage data;
- and
- operate the plurality of ejectors to eject one marking agent in the plurality of marking agents onto each pixel location in the plurality of pixel locations in the region of the image receiving surface with reference to the halftone image data to form a printed halftone image having a uniform thickness in the region of the image receiving surface, at least a first pixel location receiving the first color marking agent and at least a second pixel location receiving the color neutral marking agent.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.