Centralized Color Management Server for Printing Apparatus
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current color management systems in commercial printing face challenges in efficiently notifying users about the state of printing apparatuses, particularly for low-skilled operators, and require high skill levels to manage multiple printing devices effectively, leading to increased workload and operational inefficiencies.
Innovation Solution
A centralized management system that utilizes cloud servers and terminals to monitor and manage printing apparatuses across multiple sites, enabling automatic color checks, adjustments, and data collection, allowing for real-time notification of color quality issues and optimizing color management operations through integrated software configurations and hardware connections.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a color expert manually performs color management operations on multiple printing apparatuses, then color quality can be maintained, but the workload increases significantly and operation efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The printing apparatus automatically performs color management operations including color checks, color adjustments, and calibration processes without requiring manual intervention from color experts. The system self-monitors color quality, self-adjusts parameters, and self-manages multiple printing apparatuses, thereby maintaining color quality while eliminating the heavy workload associated with manual management
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors color quality metrics from printed outputs and automatically feeds this information back into the control system. Based on the feedback, the system automatically adjusts printing parameters to maintain color quality standards, enabling continuous quality assurance without manual intervention and significantly improving operational efficiency
2Ease of operation
If low-skilled operators perform color management operations, then labor costs decrease, but the ability to achieve high color quality is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The system automates complex color management tasks that previously required skilled color experts. Low-skilled operators simply initiate automated processes through a user-friendly interface, and the system handles all sophisticated color analysis, adjustment, and calibration automatically, ensuring high color quality regardless of operator skill level
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical system of manual color management operations performed by skilled experts with an automated electronic system that uses colorimeters, processors, and algorithms to perform color checks, measurements, and adjustments. This substitution transfers the expertise from human operators to the automated system, enabling low-skilled operators to achieve expert-level color quality
3Productivity
If multiple printing apparatuses are managed simultaneously, then production capacity increases, but the complexity of color management increases and workload increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system is designed as a universal color management platform that can simultaneously manage multiple different types of printing apparatuses through a single integrated system. The apparatus performs multiple functions including color checking, color measurement, color adjustment, calibration, and monitoring across all connected printing devices, thereby increasing production capacity while maintaining manageable complexity through consolidation
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the color management functions for multiple printing apparatuses into a single integrated system. Instead of requiring separate management processes for each device, the system combines color checking, measurement, adjustment, and calibration operations into unified automated workflows that manage multiple apparatuses simultaneously, reducing overall management complexity while expanding production capacity
Data Source
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AI summary
An information processing apparatus (211), capable of being connected to an image processing apparatus (221) including an image forming unit (509), includes an acquisition unit (602) configured to acquire a judgment result as to whether a colorimetric value obtained as a result of measuring a color of a chart image formed by the image forming unit (509) satisfies a predetermined criterion in terms of a difference between the colorimetric value and a target value, a notification unit (602) configured to notify the image processing apparatus (221) that the judgment result acquired by the acquisition unit (602) does not satisfy the criterion, and an instruction unit (622) configured to, before the notification unit issues the notification to the image processing apparatus (221), instruct the image processing apparatus (221) to execute an adjustment process.