Automatic Drop Shadow Trapping Using Proxy Elements
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing automatic trapping techniques in printing often produce undesirable results, especially when dealing with drop shadows, leading to abrupt changes and distortion in small text or discontinuities along boundaries between vector graphical elements and drop shadows, requiring manual adjustments and being time-consuming.
Innovation Solution
A method that identifies drop shadow idioms in a sequence of graphical elements, replaces them with proxy drop shadow elements, and calculates effective neutral densities to determine optimal trapping strategies, ensuring seamless integration with existing trapping rules without manual adjustments.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If automatic trapping techniques are used with drop shadows, then productivity is improved, but manufacturing precision deteriorates due to abrupt changes and distortion in small text
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by detecting drop shadow idioms and replacing them with proxy elements before the trapping process begins. This preprocessing step ensures that subsequent trapping operations work with simplified geometric representations, preventing the abrupt changes and distortions that would otherwise occur during automatic trapping of complex drop shadow regions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces proxy drop shadow elements as intermediary objects between the original complex drop shadow idioms and the trapping process. These proxies serve as mediators that simplify the interaction between trapping algorithms and drop shadow regions, enabling automatic trapping to proceed without causing text distortion or boundary discontinuities.
2Manufacturing precision
If manual trapping adjustments are made for drop shadows, then manufacturing precision is improved, but loss of time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables self-service by implementing automatic detection and replacement of drop shadow idioms with proxy elements. This automated preprocessing eliminates the need for manual trapping adjustments, allowing the system to handle drop shadows correctly without human intervention while maintaining high trapping quality and reducing time consumption.
3Ease of manufacture
If drop shadow idioms are replaced with proxy elements, then device complexity increases, but ease of manufacture improves
Solution Approach 1:
By performing the replacement of drop shadow idioms with proxy elements as a preliminary step, the patent simplifies the subsequent trapping process. The added complexity of detecting and replacing idioms is concentrated in one phase, making the main trapping operation simpler and more straightforward to implement.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods, program products and systems for automatically trapping drop shadows. For at least one segment incident to an atomic region which includes a drop shadow, and for each side of the segment, determining a first flattened color of the side's incident atomic region, and if the atomic region includes a drop shadow, additionally determining a second flattened color omitting the color of the drop shadow. An effective neutral density from the side's first flattened color is determined and, if the side has a second flattened color, the side's second flattened color. The two atomic regions incident to the segment are trapped based upon the effective neutral densities for the respective sides.