阅读说明：本技术 利用螺线点的数字半色调 (Digital halftoning using spiral dots ) 是由 R.巴特尔斯 于 2018-10-23 设计创作，主要内容包括：半色调光栅图像,其适合于渲染包括多个螺线点的连续调图像。所述螺线点包括：(i)被布置为第一弧(200)或被布置为一起表示第一螺线(100)的多个弧的图像像素,以及(ii)被布置为第二弧(201)或被布置为一起表示第二螺线(101)的多个弧的非图像像素。螺线点使得油墨能够在点内受控制地散布,从而使图像质量更高、节省了油墨并使干燥速度更快。(A halftone raster image adapted to render a contone image comprising a plurality of spiral dots. The spiral points include: (i) image pixels arranged as a first arc (200) or as a plurality of arcs together representing a first spiral (100), and (ii) non-image pixels arranged as a second arc (201) or as a plurality of arcs together representing a second spiral (101). The spiral dots allow for controlled spreading of the ink within the dots, resulting in higher image quality, ink savings, and faster drying rates.)

1. A halftone raster image for rendering a contone image, wherein the halftone raster image comprises a plurality of halftone dots comprising (i) image pixels arranged as a first arc (200) or as a plurality of arcs arranged together to represent a first spiral (100), and

(ii) non-image pixels arranged as a second arc (201) or as a plurality of arcs together representing a second spiral (101).

2. The halftone grating image of claim 1, wherein the second arcs or the second spirals are open.

3. The halftone grating image according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the thickness of the first and second arcs and the first and second spirals are independently from 1 μ ι η to 75 μ ι η.

4. The halftone raster image of any of the preceding claims, wherein the halftone dots are regularly tiled at a distance from 50 μ ι η to 400 μ ι η between centers of adjacent halftone dots.

5. The halftone grating image of any of the preceding claims, having a screen frequency higher than 39 lines per centimeter and a screen angle selected from the group consisting of 0 °, 15 °, 75 °, 90 °, 45 °, 67.5 °, 22.5 °, 7.5 °, 82.5 °, and 37.5 °.

6. The halftone raster image according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the screen frequency is higher than 40 lines per inch (15.7 lines/cm).

7. A lithographic printing plate comprising a halftone raster image according to any of claims 1 to 6, wherein the first spiral defines ink accepting regions and the second spiral defines water accepting regions.

8. A flexographic printing plate comprising the halftone raster image of any of claims 1 to 6, wherein the first spiral defines an ink-accepting region.

9. A method of transforming a contone image into a halftone raster image as defined in any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the first arc of spiral points, the first spiral, the second arc and the second spiral each have a length and/or thickness determined by the local density of the contone image, the method comprising the steps of: transforming the contone image into the halftone raster image by means of at least one threshold tile, thereby

-in highlights and midtones of said halftone raster image, the number of image pixels is increased by increasing the length and/or thickness of said first arc or said first spiral; and

-in the shadow of said halftone raster image, the number of image pixels is increased by reducing the length and/or thickness of said second arc or said second spiral.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the number of image pixels is increased by: adding protrusions to said first spiral, or by increasing the thickness of one or more sections of said first spiral, or by increasing the thickness of the entire first spiral, or by inserting image pixels in said second spiral, or by a combination of any of these methods.

11. A method of making a printing plate comprising the steps of: (i) producing a halftone raster image as defined in any of claims 1 to 6, and (ii) exposing the halftone raster image on a printing plate precursor.

12. A method of making a printing plate comprising the steps of: (i) transforming the contone image into a halftone raster image by the method of claim 9 or 10, and (ii) exposing the halftone raster image on a printing plate precursor.

13. A method of printing comprising the steps of: (i) manufacturing a printing plate by the method of claim 11 or 12; (ii) providing ink to the printing plate; and (iii) transferring ink from the plate to a substrate.

14. A method of inkjet printing comprising the steps of: (i) making a halftone raster image as defined in any of claims 1 to 6, and (ii) jetting ink on a substrate at areas defined by first arcs and first spirals of the halftone raster image.

15. A method of inkjet printing comprising the steps of: (i) transforming a contone image into a halftone raster image by the method of claim 9 or 10, and (ii) jetting ink on a substrate at an area defined by a first arc and a first spiral of the halftone raster image.

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of digital halftone methods used for printing images, in particular by means of lithographic or flexographic printing machines, and by digital printing techniques such as inkjet printing.

Background

Printers and digital printers are not capable of varying the amount of ink or toner applied to a particular image area, except through digital halftoning (also called dithering or screening). Digital halftoning is the process of rendering the illusion of a contone image using a plurality of dots (also called halftone dots). Digital images produced by digital halftoning are called halftone raster images or screens (screens). Both multilevel and binary halftone methods are known. Halftone dots generated by the binary method are composed of pixels representing image data and pixels representing non-image data.

Binary digital halftoning is a well-known technique, explained in detail in Robert Ulichney, entitled "digital halftoning" (proceedings of the institute of technology, Massachusetts, 1987, ISBN 0-262-.

Another overview of digital halftoning is disclosed in the article "Recent trends in digital halftoning" (Proc. SPIE 2949, imaging science and display technology, (2.7.1997); doi: 10.1117/12.266335), where multi-level digital halftoning is also explained.

AM (amplitude modulation) screening is a widely used cluster dot ordered dithering technique in which the size of the halftone dots is modulated to represent different densities of an image. In printing AM images, each halftone dot corresponds to a certain amount of ink (a.k.a. a. spot), which has to be pressed or jetted in a (very) short time onto the substrate to be printed, dried and cured, which is particularly problematic when multiple inks are used to print on top of each other, whether wet-on-wet or (semi-dry-on-dry). The spread of the ink on the substrate or on a previously deposited ink layer is determined by the thickness of the spots and the local (de-wetting) wetting and/or absorption of the ink on the substrate, which makes the printed spots locally uncontrollable, thereby generating noise in the printed image and in the print quality depending on the substrate.

Such problems may be solved by other screening techniques, such as FM (frequency modulation) screening or techniques involving error diffusion. In both techniques, the image density of the halftone dots is modulated by the frequency of the dots rather than the size of the dots. However, these techniques also have other problems such as poor printing stability, smoothness of the leveling, higher dot gain during long printing, and higher wear of the printing plate.

Hybrid screening techniques that combine AM and FM methods are also available to gain the advantages of both. However, the screening technique involves rendering the contone image using multiple threshold tiles, which requires more memory space to store these multiple threshold tiles, such as a threshold tile utilizing the FM method in highlights, a threshold tile utilizing the AM method in midtones, and another threshold tile utilizing the FM method in shadows. In addition, the transition from one threshold tile to another may produce density jumps in the printed image, whereby calibration of the screening technique also takes more service time than AM and FM.

US2007/0002384 discloses a method of controlling the thickness of an ink spot in an AM halftone area of a printing plate or intermediate image carrier on a digital printer. The method generates a raster image having regularly tiled halftone dots that include one or more ink-receiving rings surrounding non-receiving portions. In other words, the ink-receiving ring forms a closed loop that completely surrounds the portion that does not receive ink. As a result, the extent to which ink can spread within the dot is still limited, since once the enclosed portion is filled, the ink cannot spread further within the dot.

Disclosure of Invention

Therefore, there is still a need for an alternative halftone image that allows better control of the spread of printed ink spots, so that the image quality is less dependent on the properties of the substrate, and the image noise is low, especially in highlights and midtones.

These problems are solved by a halftone raster image of claim 1, wherein, referring to fig. 36, halftone dots include:

(i) image pixels arranged as a first arc (200) or as a plurality of arcs together representing a first spiral (100), an

(ii) Non-image pixels arranged as a second arc (201) or as a plurality of arcs together representing a second spiral (101).

Such points will be referred to herein as "spiral points". The image pixels are represented by black areas in the figure. The non-image pixels define non-printing areas and correspond to the remaining blank areas in the dot, as represented by the white areas in the figure. The dot coverage (coverage) of the two dots on the left hand side of fig. 36 is low (the percentage of image pixels is low) and represents highlight of the image, while the dot coverage of the two dots on the right hand side of fig. 36 is high and represents shading of the image.

The image pixels define the areas of the image to be printed, typically using ink, for example by a printer or an inkjet printer; or printed with toner, for example in a laser printer. In this context, we will mainly refer to printing with ink, but the skilled person understands that the same argument applies equally to printing with other types of colorants, such as toner or sublimation dyes, or to printing with varnish or white ink.

In the highlight portion of the image, the number of image pixels per point is so small that they cannot form a complete winding of the first spiral, but only a portion thereof, called "first arc". The empty space partially enclosed by the first arc may also be considered another arc, which is referred to herein as a "second arc". In the intermediate harmonic shades of the image, the number of image pixels of each point is greater, so that they can form one or more wrapped "first spirals", thereby also defining a "second spiral" of non-image pixels defined by empty spaces between the wraps of the first spiral (see, for example, fig. 10).

Without being bound by theory, it can be observed that when the printed image is enlarged, the shape and size of the printed ink spots is less affected by the uncontrolled spreading of the ink, since excess ink printed by the first arc or spiral can flow into the empty space corresponding to the second arc or spiral when the ink spots are pressed onto the substrate, for example by a printer. The empty space defines an ink channel that can receive ink printed from the first arc/spiral, thereby providing a means for controlling ink spreading.

In contrast to the halftone dots disclosed in US2007/0002384, whose hollow rings are not interconnected, the hollow arcs used in the spiral dots of the present invention may be connected to each other (thereby forming a second spiral) so that the ink spots have a larger spread space within the dot. As a result, the raster image of the present invention produces well-shaped ink dots on a printed substrate, resulting in improved quality of reproduced images and less dot gain, which is particularly advantageous when printing on uncoated absorbent paper such as newsprint.

Due to the better ink spreading, the present invention allows to obtain a good print quality with less ink consumption than conventional techniques, since the excess ink located above the print spot helps to increase the density of the printed image by filling the empty spaces formed by the second arcs or second spirals when printing with conventional raster images.

In addition, the lower degree of local ink accumulation produces thinner ink droplets on the printed substrate and thus enables faster drying of the printed copy.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention defined by claim 2, the second spiral is open, i.e. not terminated by image pixels at the outer edge of the intermediate tone point, so that the second spiral forms an open channel that can direct excess ink out of the point. As shown in fig. 25, the magnified image of the printed dot produced by this embodiment typically shows the release of a small amount of ink at the exit of the channel (i.e., outside of the dot). The open channels may enable further spreading of the ink and thus save more ink and also dry faster.

Another advantage of the raster image of the present invention is that it can be produced from a single threshold tile for the entire range of density values for each color (such as cyan, magenta, yellow or black), so that it can be implemented in current image processors, pre-press workflow systems and Raster Image Processors (RIP), digital printers and plate makers, without the need to install additional memory.

Rendering higher image density in highlights and midtones of an image can be achieved simply by increasing the length of the first spiral by adding more arcs to it, thereby creating more windings of the first spiral around the centre of the point (and therefore also more windings of the second spiral). Higher image densities can also be obtained by increasing the thickness of the first spiral. The two embodiments can be combined in the same image, i.e. the image density of the halftone dots can be increased by increasing the length of the first spiral and by increasing the thickness of the first spiral. In shadows of the image, where the halftone dots may touch or even overlap, higher image densities may be obtained by reducing the length and/or thickness of the second spiral.

The halftone raster images of the present invention are preferably used in lithographic and flexographic printing systems. The present invention also provides advantages when used in conjunction with digital printers, particularly inkjet systems. These and other applications and advantages of the present invention will be further described in the detailed description.

Drawings

Fig. 1 and 11: fig. 1 is an enlarged view of a raster image comprising archimedean spiral points with a point coverage of 50% and regularly tiled in a square grid according to the invention. Fig. 11 shows the multi-point coverage produced by the same threshold tile as fig. 1.

Fig. 2 and 12: fig. 2 is an enlarged view of a raster image comprising spiral dots having a 50% dot coverage and an elliptical shape and angled along the screen angle of the threshold tile, according to the present invention. Fig. 12 shows the multi-point coverage produced by the same threshold tile as fig. 2.

Fig. 3 and 13: fig. 3 is an enlarged view of a raster image comprising archimedean spiral points with a point coverage of 50% and regularly tiled in a hexagonal grid according to the invention. Fig. 13 shows the multi-point coverage produced by the same threshold tile as fig. 3.

Fig. 4 and 14: fig. 4 is an enlarged view of a raster image comprising spiral dots with a dot coverage of 50% and squares with rounded edges according to the present invention. Fig. 14 shows the multi-point coverage produced by the same threshold tile as fig. 4.

Fig. 5 and fig. 15: figure 5 is an enlarged view of a grating image comprising archimedean spiral points with 50% point coverage according to the present invention, wherein the rotation start angle of the spiral varies within the same image. Fig. 15 shows the multi-point coverage produced by the same threshold tile as fig. 5.

Fig. 6 and 16: figure 6 is an enlarged view of a grating image including archimedean spiral points having a point coverage of 50% and which include radial lines from the center to the edge of the points, according to the present invention. Fig. 16 shows the multi-point coverage produced by the same threshold tile as fig. 6.

Fig. 7 and 17: fig. 4 is an enlarged view of a raster image comprising square spiral dots with 50% dot coverage and no rounded edges according to the present invention. Fig. 17 shows the multi-point coverage produced by the same threshold tile as fig. 7.

Fig. 8 and 18: figure 8 is an enlarged view of a grating image including archimedean spiral points according to the present invention having a point coverage of 50% and which are generated with different parameters compared to the spiral in figure 1. Fig. 18 represents the multi-point coverage produced by the same threshold tile as fig. 8.

Fig. 9 and 19: fig. 9 is an enlarged view of a grating image according to the present invention comprising (i) archimedean spiral points with a point coverage of 50% and (ii) cluster points between the spiral points. Fig. 19 shows the multi-point coverage produced by the same threshold tile as fig. 9.

Figure 10 is an enlarged view of a grating image including archimedean spiral dots with a dot coverage of 90% according to the present invention.

Fig. 20 and 21: FIG. 20 shows an example of a threshold tile that includes thresholds from 1 to 256 that may be used to generate an image in accordance with the present invention. Fig. 21 shows spiral dots generated by the threshold tile of fig. 20 for a halftone dot having a threshold of 22, which corresponds to a dot coverage of 8.6% (= 22/256).

FIGS. 22-24: these figures show examples of threshold tiles (300-306) suitable for generating images of the present invention.

Fig. 25 shows a microscopic magnified view of a printed copy produced with a halftone raster image according to the invention (screen frequency 240L PI; screen angle 45 °) printed on coated paper (130 gr) with a CMYK Man Roland 300a printer by means of a lithographic printing plate Elite Pro from Agfa (Agfa NV.) the small speckles between the spiral points are artifacts caused by scanning the original picture.

FIGS. 26 to 35: these figures represent the spiral points generated by the threshold tiles of fig. 22-24. The number of points is the same as the number of threshold tiles that extend with the threshold. For example, point "3025" is the spiral point generated by the threshold tile 302 and threshold 5; likewise, the point "3017" is a spiral point or the like generated by the threshold tile 301 and the threshold 7.

FIG. 36 shows four spiral points according to the present invention comprising (i) image pixels arranged as a first arc (200) or as a plurality of arcs arranged together to represent a first clockwise rotated spiral (100), and

(ii) non-image pixels arranged as a second arc (201) or as a plurality of arcs together representing a second clockwise rotation spiral (101).

FIG. 37 shows a scanned image of a4 Color (CMYK) printed copy of a raster image produced by a prior art screening method (Acke's ABS screening) using standard offset angles (0, 15, 45, and 90) and a screen frequency of 240L PI.

FIG. 38 shows a scanned image of the same print as shown in FIG. 37, but produced by a raster image according to the present invention, using the same screening angle, color and screen frequency as FIG. 37. Small speckles between points are artifacts due to scanning and color conversion.

FIG. 39: the figure shows spiral points (3077) from a raster image according to the invention.

Detailed Description

Definition of

Halftone dots are picture elements of a screen and may be, for example, circular, oval, diamond-shaped, or square. In highlights and midtones of the image, the halftone dots are isolated from each other, and at coverage above about 50%, the dots are connected to each other.

Screens, also called halftone raster images, are areas split into printed and non-printed picture elements (halftone dots or lines), wherein the size and/or number of dots per area varies depending on the tone value (also called density) of the original, such as a contone image.

Screening (also called halftoning) is a method by which a contone image is transformed into a halftone raster image or a set of halftone raster images. The transformation may involve the use of one or more threshold tiles. The number of threshold tiles typically depends on the number of color channels included in the contone image.

Continuous tone (digital) images are defined by various image formats, also called raster graphics formats, non-limiting examples of which are Portable Network Graphics (PNG), Tagged Image File Format (TIFF), Adobe Photoshop document (PSD), Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG), and Bitmap (BMP). Continuous tone images typically have a large color depth, such as 8-bit grayscale or 48-bit color.

The screen frequency (sometimes also called screen definition or screen rules) is the number of halftone dots and screen lines per unit length in the direction that produces the maximum value, measured in lines per centimeter or lines per inch (L PI).

RIP is an abbreviation for raster image processor. The RIP converts the information of the page (containing images, text, graphic elements, and orientation commands) into a halftone raster image, which can then be sent to an output device, such as an image setter, plate maker, or digital printer. The RIP may also be included in the output device.

Resolution (also called addressability) is the number of picture elements (dots, pixels) that can be reproduced per unit length by an output device, such as a monitor, a printing plate or on paper. And is typically expressed in units of units per centimeter or inch (dots) (dpi). High resolution means good detail rendering. An output device with high resolution allows the use of high screen frequencies.

Grating image

This requirement means that the screen frequency is higher than 40 lines per inch (L PI; 15.7 lines/cm), more preferably higher than 60L PI (23.6 lines/cm), and most preferably higher than 100L PI (39.4 lines/cm.) if the screen frequency is lower than 40L PI, the dots will become visible at a viewing distance (also called the reading distance) of about 20 cm.

The raster image of the present invention comprises spiral points that are preferably tiled regularly, for example along a triangular, rectangular or hexagonal grid (e.g., fig. 3 and 13), and preferably along a square grid (e.g., fig. 1 and 11). Spiral dots can also be used for (semi-) randomly arranged halftone dots, such as blue noise or white noise arranged halftone dots. However, regularly tiled spiral dots are preferred to avoid irregular structures in the printed image. The distance between the centers of adjacent dots may be in the range from 50 μm to 400 μm.

The raster image may further comprise conventional halftone dots, such as AM dots and/or FM dots, in combination with the spiral dots of the present invention (see, e.g., fig. 9 and 19). In a more preferred embodiment, the raster image is completely composed of spiral dots according to the invention.

Preferably, the screen angle of the grating images according to the invention is selected from the group consisting of 0 ° + k × 30 °, 7.5 ° + k × 30 °, 15 ° + k × 30 °, 22.5 ° + k × 30 °, where k is a negative or positive integer the most preferred embodiment has a screen angle selected from the group consisting of 0 °, 15 °, 75 °, 90 °, 45 °, 67.5 °, 22.5 °, 7.5 °, 82.5 ° and 37.5 °, the screen angle being measured as conventionally defined in the printing industry (i.e. counterclockwise from the horizontal axis to coincide with the Cartesian coordinate system). when combining multiple grating images in multicolor printing, the difference in screen angle between color selections is preferably a multiplier of 15 ° or a multiplier of 30 °.

Point of spiral

Preferably, the spiral points in the image of the invention comprise only one "first arc" or one "first spiral", i.e. all image pixels together form a single arc or a single spiral which may have a plurality of windings. However, raster images with halftone dots are also embodiments of the invention in which the image pixels are arranged in more than one arc or more than one spiral. In such embodiments, multiple arcs or spirals representing image pixels may be interconnected at a common center, for example, as in FIGS. 31-35 (3046) 3049 and 30410. Thus, when we refer herein to "first arcs" or "first spirals" (singular), it should be clear that halftone dots having a plurality of first arcs or spirals are also encompassed by the invention (304). The same applies to the second arc and the second spiral.

The spiral can be considered as a combination of a plurality of arcs. An arc is a curve that does not form a closed loop and typically corresponds to a segment of, for example, a circle or an ellipse, but in the context of the present invention the term also covers less conventional shapes, such as segments of optionally rounded rectangles or optionally rounded triangles.

In a preferred embodiment, the center of the first arc or spiral may be a dot (single image or non-image pixel), but may also be a clustered halftone dot similar to prior art AM dots. The center point may have any shape such as a circle or a square (see, e.g., FIGS. 29-35: 3014; 30110; 3026; 3029; 30210; 3032; 3039). The center point may be larger in halftone dots representing high image densities and may be smaller in halftone dots representing low image densities.

All arcs that together constitute the first spiral are preferably interconnected such that the first spiral represents a continuous line. The first spiral may also contain isolated non-image pixels or may comprise separate arcs, such that the first spiral is interrupted by empty space at one or more locations, as shown in fig. 39. In this embodiment, the empty spaces separating adjacent arcs of the first spiral may be considered as protrusions of the second spiral into the first spiral. Such a protrusion of the second spiral may completely cut the first spiral into separate arcs, or not completely cut, whereby the first spiral is not interrupted but locally reduced to a lower thickness.

The second spiral represents non-image pixels of the raster image of the present invention, i.e. empty spaces between the arcs of the first spiral(s). In one embodiment of the invention, the space between adjacent windings of the first spiral is completely empty, i.e. does not contain any image pixels. In such an embodiment, the empty space forms a continuous second spiral. In another embodiment of the invention, the first spiral comprises protrusions of image pixels extending into the empty space between the windings, as shown in FIGS. 28-35 (3063) and 3069 and 30610); such a protrusion may connect two adjacent windings of the first spiral, thereby dividing the second spiral into two or more sections separated from each other by said protrusion of the first spiral. Other embodiments of the second arc or second spiral may include isolated image pixels in the empty space between adjacent windings of the first spiral, i.e. without contacting the image pixels of the first spiral.

The first arcs or protrusions of the first spirals may be aligned so as to form one or more radial lines in the spiral point (fig. 6 and 16). The thickness of such radial lines may be, for example, from one pixel to five pixels for high screen frequencies, e.g., above 150L PI (59 lines/cm). The thickness of the radial line(s) may be one or two pixels.

In a highly preferred embodiment of the invention, the second arc or second spiral is open, i.e. not terminated by image pixels at the outer edge of the intermediate tuning point, so that it forms an open channel that directs excess ink out of the point in a controlled manner. In embodiments without such open channels, higher ink accumulation may result in uncontrolled ink splattering beyond the outer edges of the dots, thereby producing irregularly shaped ink dots on the printed copy, resulting in lower image quality.

In a preferred embodiment, the thickness of the first and second arcs and the thickness of the first and second spirals are independently from 1 to 10 pixels, more preferably from 2 to 5 pixels, which preferably corresponds to a thickness from 1 μm to 75 μm.

The minimum thickness of the arcs and spirals may be selected based on the resolution of the printing technique for which the raster image is intended. The maximum thickness that enables the controlled ink spreading described above may be determined by the particular type of substrate on which the halftone raster image is to be printed and/or may be determined by the desired screen frequency. These and other selections, such as the starting angle, are preferably made in an input field of a user interface of the halftone generator.

It will be clear to those skilled in the art that the same dot coverage can be produced with different spiral dots of the same overall size: the coverage produced by a dot consisting of only one winding of a first spiral of a certain thickness is the same as the coverage of more wound dots of a first spiral with a lower thickness.

The thickness of the first arc or first spiral may also vary within the same point, e.g., be smaller at the center of the point than at the edges of the point, see, e.g., fig. 32 (3027) and 33 (3028). Such spiral points may produce less granularity, especially in the midtones of the image.

The winding of the arcs and spirals used in the present invention may be clockwise or counterclockwise and the two embodiments may be combined in the same raster image. Fig. 1-10 show spiral points with clockwise windings. Examples of counterclockwise winding are shown, for example, in FIGS. 29-35 (3004. sub. 3010; 3014-19; 30110; 3024-29; 30210; 3034. sub. 3039; 30310).

At the center of the point, the starting angle of the first arc or first spiral is preferably the same for all spiral points in the image. In an alternative embodiment of the invention, the starting angle of each spiral point is chosen randomly by a random number generator (fig. 5 and 15). This is a less preferred embodiment because the dots may touch each other in an irregular manner, which may result in noise.

The shape of the first arc or the first spiral may be of any type, and different types of arcs and spirals may be combined within the same grating image (see e.g. the spiral point of fig. 4 having a square with rounded edges, whereas the spiral point of fig. 4 has a square without rounded edges).

In a preferred embodiment, the first spiral is archimedes, as defined by the following formula

Where r is the radial distance, θ is the polar angle, and a and b are parameters that define the opening of the spiral at its center and the distance between adjacent windings. This definition can be even further extended by the following formula

Where n is a constant that determines the degree of winding of the spiral. Figures 1, 3 and 8 show archimedean spirals with different parameters a and b.

In other embodiments, the first spiral may also be an involute, a part of an euler spiral, a part of a logarithmic spiral, or a fermat spiral. Other types of spirals can be generated using the Gielis super equation, suitable examples of which are as follows:

example 1:

example 2:

。

the first spiral may also be an elliptical spiral (fig. 2 and 12). In such embodiments, the major axis of the ellipse is preferably oriented along the screen angle of the raster image or perpendicular to the screen angle of the raster image.

As already indicated in the summary, the ink channels defined by the second arcs or second spirals allow a controlled spreading of the ink printed at the areas defined by the first arcs or first spirals, thereby enabling a higher image quality with less ink to be obtained compared to the state of the art. In addition, the controlled spreading of the ink also allows for reduced print mottle. In the prior art, print mottle is reduced by modifying the surface of the substrate (e.g., by applying a blotter coating prior to printing or by corona or flame treatment.

The invention also allows reducing Moir é (Moir) which is known in The prior art, as disclosed in "The Theory of The Moir Phenomenon" of isaa amidror (kluyverge academic press (2000; ISBN 0-7923-5950-X)), which occurs when different colors, screen frequencies and screen angles are printed on top of each other, see chapter 3 "Moir minimization". When using a multicolor press with more than one color station, it appears that the second spiral in halftone dots printed by one color station may also serve as an ink channel for ink that has been printed by another color station. As a result, the spread of ink deposited on the substrate by the first color station may be controlled in a better manner than with conventional techniques such as AM halftoning, resulting in fewer moir é fringes.

To reduce moire effects such as subject moire, it is even more preferred to use spiral dots comprising multiple windings of a thin first spiral, rather than dots producing the same coverage with fewer but thicker windings. The multiple convolutions make the moire effect less pronounced as such points give the impression of a higher screen frequency. The moire effect produced by the conventional screen results in a typical rosette structure as shown in figure 37, which is less pronounced when using a grating image according to the present invention (figure 38).

The present invention is also less susceptible to tone jumps at midtones, which may occur in conventional AM screens. When the edges of the growing halftone dots of the present invention touch, abrupt tone jumps, also called density jumps, known in the art can be reduced because the accumulation of ink caused by the touching dots is drained by the ink channels in the dots.

The spreading of the ink further enables faster drying of the printed copies, which allows the print job to be aligned with the proof because they are all dry and therefore do not have to be considered for dryback, the faster drying also reduces the risk of ink offset (setoff), e.g. in a printer transport tray, transfer of ink from one printed copy to the back of another on top of it.

The present invention enables inkjet printing at high screen frequencies (e.g., above 200L PI (78.7 lines/cm)) on various substrates such as coated (plastic) films, translucent (plastic) films, and newsprint, which are not achievable with prior art AM halftone methods.

The better uniformity of the patches produced by the raster images of the present invention makes it easier to measure color profiles for color management systems and to match color images, for example, with online color monitoring by measuring print copies during a print run. As a result, the print job comes faster in terms of color and less substrate is wasted.

Threshold tiles

The raster image of the present invention is preferably generated from one or more threshold tiles (sometimes called threshold arrays) that transform the contone image into a halftone raster. The transformation is also called thresholding. The use of threshold tiles is known in the art. More information about threshold tiles is disclosed in, for example, "Digital colorresilience" chapter 13 of Henry r. Kang; it is published in the SPIE/IEEE image science and engineering series (11.11.1999; ISBN 0-8194-; and are disclosed in chapter 5 and chapter 6 of "Digital Halftoning" of Robert Ulchney (the publisher MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.; 1987; ISBN 0-262-. Conventional ways of generating threshold tiles for AM screens are disclosed in the following patent applications: US5155599, US5903713 and EP 0910206. Adjacent spiral points may grow in different ways, similar to conventional screens as disclosed in "Recent threads in digital haloftning" (Proc. SPIE 2949, imaging science and display technology (1997); doi: 10.1117/12.266335). The point centre of the spiral point may also be shifted as disclosed in US 6,128,099.

When used for binary digital halftoning, one threshold tile is sufficient to generate the raster image of the present invention. As a result, the number of threshold tiles is preferably the same as the number of color channels in the contone image. This provides the advantage that the generation of raster images according to the invention can be easily integrated in current image processors, pre-press workflow systems and Raster Image Processors (RIP) since there is no need to switch between different threshold tiles as used in hybrid halftoning techniques which require more memory than the method of the invention requires.

For multi-level digital halftoning, the threshold tile includes a plurality of equally sized arrays, one for each level. The shape of such an array comprising thresholds may be square or rectangular, but a utah-shaped array or a diamond-shaped array is also suitable. More information on multilevel halftones can be found in e.g. US 5903713.

Transforming a contone image into a halftone image of the present invention by means of one or more threshold tiles is similar to the prior art: halftone dot coverage, which is typically expressed in percentage and defined by the number of image pixels in a dot, as defined by a threshold tile, increases in proportion to the corresponding density of the original contone image. The point coverage of the spiral points of the present invention can be increased in various ways: by increasing the length of the first arc or first spiral, and thereby increasing the size of the dots, as determined by the continuous values of the threshold patch (see fig. 20 and 21); by increasing the thickness of the first arc or first spiral without increasing the size of the point (thereby reducing the empty space of the second spiral), locally, for example, by adding protrusions to the first spiral, or by increasing the thickness of one or more sections of the first spiral, and/or by increasing the thickness of the entire first spiral; by inserting image pixels inside the second spiral; or by a combination of any of these methods.

22-24 show seven examples of threshold tiles having a size of 15 × 15 and including 10 consecutive thresholds numbered from 1 to 10, these threshold tiles are suitable for generating spiral points according to the present invention, as shown in FIGS. 26-35.

The threshold patch 300 defines a counterclockwise rotated spiral point, where the maximum thickness of the first spiral is one pixel and the maximum thickness of the second spiral is two pixels. The spiral points 3001-30010 generated by the threshold tile 300 for the consecutive density values 1-10 are represented in the first row of fig. 26-35, respectively.

The threshold tile 301 defines a counterclockwise rotated spiral point where the maximum thickness of the first spiral is two pixels and the maximum thickness of the second spiral is two pixels. At a threshold above 7, the second spiral tapers. The spiral points 3011 and 30110 generated by the threshold tile 301 for successive density values 1-10 are represented in the second row of fig. 26-35, respectively.

The threshold patch 302 defines counterclockwise rotated spiral points, where a first spiral becomes thinner at increasing threshold and a second spiral becomes thicker at increasing threshold. The spiral points 3021-30210 generated by the threshold tile 302 for the successive density values 1-10 are represented in the third row of fig. 26-35, respectively.

The threshold tile 303 defines a counterclockwise rotated spiral point that includes a square point at its center from which the lengths of the first and second spirals increase at a higher threshold. Spiral points 3031-30310 generated by the threshold tile 303 for successive density values 1-10 are represented in the fourth row of fig. 26-35, respectively.

The threshold tile 304 defines a counterclockwise rotated spiral point that includes a double first spiral, and thus also two second spirals. The spiral points 3041 and 30410 generated by the threshold tile 304 for successive density values 1-10 are represented in the fifth rows of FIGS. 26-35, respectively.

The threshold tile 305 is similar to the threshold tile 300, but the spiral points generated thereby have different starting angles. The spiral points 3051-30510 generated by the threshold tile 305 for the successive density values 1-10 are represented in the sixth row of fig. 26-35, respectively.

The threshold patch 306 defines clockwise rotated spiral points, wherein the first spiral comprises protrusions. The spiral points 3061-30610 generated by the threshold tile 306 for successive density values 1-10 are represented in the seventh row of fig. 26-35, respectively.

In the highlight part of the raster image, the dot coverage may be too low for the image pixels to represent a complete wrap of the first spiral. The image pixels then represent segments of the first spiral, i.e., the first arc as shown in fig. 26-28. The transition from highlight to intermediate key is preferably made by increasing the thickness of said first arc and/or by increasing the length of said first arc until a complete winding of the first spiral is formed. Still higher coverage may be obtained by increasing the thickness and/or length of said first spiral, which may then consist of more than one winding (including partial windings).

From a certain threshold coverage, preferably more than 40%, more preferably more than 50%, and most preferably more than 55%, the length of the first spiral may not increase anymore without overlapping with neighboring points. Above said threshold value, a darker image may be generated by reducing the length and/or thickness of the second spiral, or by inserting image pixels inside the second spiral. At still higher point coverage, the second spiral further contracts and becomes an arc (second arc).

Spiral points with high point coverage no longer have an open second spiral due to the overlap between adjacent points. However, the advantages of the present invention are still provided by such spiral points, since the closed second spiral still defines channels that can accept ink, resulting in better print quality with more uniform patches than the prior art AM threshold patches. The present invention also provides the known advantages of prior art AM threshold tiles over FM threshold tiles, namely smoothness of the flat tones and rendering of the middle tones and better print stability. At the same time, the present invention also provides the advantages of the prior art FM threshold tiles over AM threshold tiles, i.e. the closure in the shading and the rendering of fine details. Moreover, the present invention does not generate irregular "worms" or spaghetti-like structures as do second order FM threshold patches, which makes the printed image rougher, especially in vignette photos (vignette) and halftone.

In a preferred embodiment, a set of threshold tiles is used to generate a cross-modulated (XM) raster image according to the present invention comprising small spiral points whose frequency is modulated in the highlights and shadows areas of the image and larger spiral points whose amplitude is modulated in the midtones, as a result, the screen frequency may be higher than 200L PI (78.7 lines/cm.) the ratio between the resolution of the halftone raster image and the screen frequency is preferably lower than 12, more preferably lower than 10. for example, when the resolution is 2400DPI (945 points/cm), the screen frequency is preferably higher than 240L PI (94.5 lines/cm).

Depending on the options selected by the user via the input fields of the user interface, one or more threshold tiles may be generated by a threshold tile generator (also called a halftone generator) included in the raster image processor or in the prepress workflow system. Conventional options include: image resolution, screen frequency, screen angle, and screen shape. According to the invention, the number of options is preferably extended by an input field for selecting the maximum thickness of the first and second arcs or spirals. Additional input fields may be added for selecting the shape of the spiral point (e.g., circular, elliptical, etc., as described above), and preferably also parameters that further define the selected shape (such as ovality). Another input field may be added for selecting one or more radial lines passing through the center of the spiral point, and optionally an additional input field for specifying the thickness of the radial line.

The generator generates the threshold tiles from these above-mentioned input fields, preferably by means of a screen function defining the shape of a spiral, such as the above-mentioned archimedean spiral. The spiral shape or radial line is preferably generated by a calculation in polar coordinates, in contrast to prior art halftone generators where cartesian coordinates are used.

Applications of

The halftone raster image of the present invention may be used in a variety of printing techniques, most preferably lithography, flexography, and digital printing.

The raster image can be exposed on a photosensitive or heat-sensitive material, such as a lithographic or flexographic printing plate precursor, by means of a laser, preferably a violet laser or an infrared laser. After processing the exposed precursor, the exposed precursor can be hidden from the user by the so-called "on-press development" process, resulting in a printing plate bearing the inventive raster image. The printing plate may then be mounted on a printing press in which ink is supplied to the printing plate and then transferred to the substrate to be printed.

When used in flexographic printing, the raster image of the present invention is represented by raised spiral dots on the flexographic printing plate. These halftone dots may be more easily imprinted onto the substrate than conventional flexographic printing, so that better transfer of ink from the flexographic printing plate to the substrate may be achieved, particularly with open ink channels.

It is known that small halftone dots are difficult to accurately reproduce with a lithographic printing plate due to the limited resolution of the image recording layer, for example, when an FM screen is used. Likewise, small print dots in lithographic images are easily worn down, reducing the extended length of the plate. These problems can be reduced by the present invention, which combines aspects of AM screens with the advantages of FM screens, such as rendering fine details and closing in shadows. Therefore, the raster image of the present invention is advantageously used in combination with a lithographic printing plate, particularly a lithographic printing plate comprising a photopolymer as an image-recording layer, which is generally used for newspaper printing. Thermal (i.e., infrared sensitive) lithographic printing plates are also advantageously used in conjunction with the present invention.

In digital printing techniques, the lenticular image of the present invention is applied to a substrate without a printing plate, for example, by jetting ink with an ink jet printer. Preferred inkjet inks to be used in the context of the present invention are UV-curable inks, (eco) solvent inks and aqueous inks. All of these techniques are well known in the art.

Preferred ink jet printing techniques include: wet-dry printing and wet-wet printing by direct jetting onto a substrate, or by jetting onto and transfer from a transfer belt or drum onto a substrate. The predetermined ink channel formed by the second spiral provides the above mentioned advantages, especially when jetted on non-absorbent substrates such as PET, polyethylene or label substrates commonly used in flexographic printing. The present invention also allows the use of high frequency screening in a single pass inkjet system.

Alternative printing techniques that may benefit from the present invention are screen printing, serigraphy, gravure, etching, pad printing or transfer printing; and digital printing techniques such as xerography, electrophotography, imaging, magnetic photography, laser printing, dye sublimation printing, dot matrix printing, thermal printing, nanophotography, or thermal (wax) transfer.

The substrate on which the grating image can be printed can be of any kind, e.g. plastic film or foil, release paper, textile, metal, glass, leather, rawhide, cotton, but also various paper substrates (light, heavy, coated, uncoated, cardboard, hardboard, etc.). The substrate may be a rigid workpiece or a flexible sheet, roll or sleeve. Preferred flexible materials include, for example, paper, transparent foil, bonded PVC sheets, etc., which may be less than 100 microns thick, preferably less than 50 microns thick. Preferred rigid substrates include, for example, rigid boards, PVC, cartons, wood or ink receivers, which may be up to 2 centimeters in thickness, and more preferably up to 5 centimeters in thickness. The substrate may also be a flexible web material (e.g., paper, vinyl, fabric, PVC, textile). A receiving layer (e.g., an ink receiving layer) may be applied on the substrate to provide good adhesion of the reproduced image to the substrate.

In another embodiment, the invention may also be used in 3D halftoning, such as stereolithography, digital light processing, fused deposition modeling, selective laser sintering, selective laser melting, electron beam melting, and the manufacture of laminated objects.

Examples of the invention

The following examples (EX1, EX2, EX3, EX4, EX5, EX 6) were all printed in CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) by a hot set printer from L ithman using the following materials and equipment:

printing ink: from Sunchemical for cyan, magenta, yellow^TMThe thermosetting ink system SunOne, and from Sunchemical for black^TMSunMag (g).

Substrate: EcoPrime 68H 52 g/m from UPM²

Platemaking machine: from KODAK^TMA magnus F L V plate making machine having a printing resolution of 2400 dpi.

Printing plate: from KODAK^TME L ECTRA MAX digital plate, and further using e.g. from KODAK^TM70 (c)7 standard thermoset printing supplies for plate processors; SchnellReiniiger 220-; from KODAK^TMElectra Max plate replenishment solution of (1); SalinoFix from Huber Group (C.)It is an additive for the targeted adjustment of the total hardness, so that the purified water is very suitable for offset printing Process for the preparation of a coating) And Redufix AF from Huber Group as source solution (found solution) ((R))Which is designed for Printing on web offset printing presses using continuous feed dampening units without the use of alcohol）。

The example uses the following halftone method with threshold tilesOne of them（One threshold value for each ink) Wherein the screen frequency is 140L PI (lines per inch), which is 55.12 lines per centimeter: (A)1 inch =2.54 cm) (ii) a And screen angles of 15, 75, 0 and 45 degrees for cyan, magenta, yellow and black, respectively, at a resolution of 2400 dpi; it is 944.88 points per centimeter:

HT1= Agfa balanced screening^TM(ii) a Also abbreviated as ABS; from AGFA^TMFor comparison with

HT = spiral halftone dots according to the invention, as shown for black separation in fig. 11 the maximum spiral thickness is 2.5 × 25400/2400=26.4583 μm, and the maximum thickness of the open ink channels (also called ink channels in the present invention) is 1.5 × 25400/2400 μm = 15.875 μm.

ABS is based on PostScript^TMThe conventional halftone screening system of (1) which improves print quality. Both halftone methods (HT 1, HT 2) use one threshold tile per color, and so can be easily implemented in a workflow system that includes a postscript (ps) interpreter and a portable file format (PDF) interpreter. The workflow System used in these examples is from AGFA^TMApogee of^TM。

6 print jobs from example (EX1, EX2, EX3, EX4, EX5, EX 6) are periodicals; printed for retail and food markets; including new prices for consumer products and temporary promotions on solid colored backgrounds on page 48 or 80, page a4, using imposition and reverse printing in CMYK on both sides of the substrate. They were printed several copies at a time using HT1 and several copies at a time using HT2 at the same maximum density and the same density for each tone value of each ink, so that each color (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) between the two halftone methods had similar print results.

Ink coverage calculated from halftone digital raster image in Apogee

After the halftoning step, a tone curve can be used at Apogee^TMThe ink coverage was calculated. In the following table, according to Apogee^TMThe calculation method in (a) calculates the ink coverage in percentage unit of (Maximum value of [ ink amount ]]× 100％). The difference in ink coverage for each example (e.g., EX1 versus EX 2) is caused by other temporary (weekly) promotions and/or different layouts. In each example, the difference in ink coverage between the halftone methods HT1 and HT2 is due to the use of different tone value curves (also called linearization curves), so the density of each ink is equal when printed between the two halftone methods (HT 1, HT 2).

Although the calculated ink coverage is a forecast, it has given an idea of how high the ink coverage is in the example.

Example 1 (EX1)

The following maximum densities are measured in duplicates:

black 1.15; cyan 0.96

Magenta 0.97; yellow 0.90

The number of copies per halftone method was 250000;

amount of ink used per halftone process (in kilograms (kg)):

HT 1610 (black = 36%; cyan = 17%; magenta = 18%; yellow = 29%)

HT 2532 (black = 35%; cyan = 17%; magenta = 18%; yellow = 30%).

Example 2 (EX 2)

The following maximum densities are measured in duplicates:

black 1.15; cyan 0.96

Magenta 0.97; yellow 0.90

The number of copies per halftone method is 275000;

amount of ink used per halftone process (in kilograms (kg)):

HT 1641 (black = 36%; cyan = 21%; magenta = 19%; yellow = 27%)

HT 2581 (black = 33%; cyan = 21%; magenta = 20%; yellow = 26%).

Examples of the invention3（EX3）

The following maximum densities are measured in duplicates:

black 1.3; cyan 1.15

Magenta 1.15; yellow 1.10

The number of copies per halftone method is 325000;

amount of ink used per halftone process (in kilograms (kg)):

HT 1792 (black = 39%; cyan = 21%; magenta = 18%; yellow = 22%)

HT 2604 (black = 38%; cyan = 21%; magenta = 19%; yellow = 22%).

Note that: for unknown reasons, the maximum density between printing with HT1 and HT2 is not equal and must be at EX3+ In-process adjustment of HT2。

Example 4 (EX 4)

The following maximum densities are measured in duplicates:

black 1.15; cyan 0.96

Magenta 0.97; yellow 0.90

The number of copies per halftone method was 250000;

amount of ink used per halftone process (in kilograms (kg)):

HT 1703 (black = 22%; cyan = 10%; magenta = 23%; yellow = 45%)

HT 2607 (black = 23%; cyan = 10%; magenta = 23%; yellow = 44%).

Example 5 (EX 5)

The following maximum densities are measured in duplicates:

black 1.30; cyan 1.15

Magenta 1.15; yellow 1.10

The number of copies per halftone method is 325000;

amount of ink used per halftone process (in kilograms (kg)):

HT 1732 (black = 45%; cyan = 20%; magenta = 18%; yellow = 17%)

HT 2625 (black = 44%; cyan = 20%; magenta = 20%; yellow = 16%).

Example 6 (EX 6)

The following maximum densities are measured in duplicates:

black 1.15; cyan 0.96

Magenta 0.97; yellow 0.90

The number of copies per halftone method is 375000;

amount of ink used per halftone process (in kilograms (kg)):

HT 1656 (black = 36%; cyan = 22%; magenta = 19%; yellow = 23%)

HT 2539 (black = 35%; cyan = 23%; magenta = 20%; yellow = 22%).

Conclusion

The total weight of ink used was compared to the number of copies between HT1 printed copies and HT2 printed copies to calculate the ink savings when HT2 was used. These examples show that less ink is used with HT 2. Less ink in the copy provides better water/ink balance, resulting in higher speeds and the potential for reducing the temperature in the heatset oven.