Ink Ejection Control for Outline Blurring
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
The bleeding phenomenon caused by quality-enhancing ink onto white pixels adjacent to colored ink pixels leads to blurring, particularly at the outline parts of printed images, degrading image quality.
Innovation Solution
A printing control method that extracts the outline area of an image and generates colored and transparent dot data, reducing the ink volume of transparent dots in the outline area to prevent blurring, by using a combination of outline area extraction, filter processing, and binarization to manage the ejection of quality-enhancing ink.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If quality-enhancing ink is ejected onto white pixels adjacent to colored ink pixels, then the quality of printed matter is improved through better coloring and moisture resistance, but a bleeding phenomenon occurs causing blurring and degrading image quality
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies different ink ejection strategies to different regions of the image. Outline areas are identified and processed differently from non-outline areas, with reduced quality-enhancing ink ejection in outline regions to prevent bleeding while maintaining quality enhancement in other areas.
Solution Approach 2:
The image is segmented into outline areas and non-outline areas based on edge detection and gradient analysis. This segmentation allows selective application of quality-enhancing ink reduction only where necessary at boundaries, preserving overall image quality while preventing localized bleeding issues.
2Strength
If quality-enhancing ink is ejected near the outline part of a broad printing image, then coloring and light resistance are improved, but the bleeding phenomenon causes blurring at the outline parts
Solution Approach 1:
Different ink ejection parameters are applied to outline regions versus interior regions. The gradient calculation identifies outline pixels, and quality-enhancing ink ejection is selectively reduced only at these outline positions, preserving light resistance in interior areas while maintaining outline sharpness.
3Manufacturing precision
If the ink volume of transparent dots is reduced in the outline area, then blurring is suppressed, but the quality enhancement effect may be reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent selectively reduces quality-enhancing ink volume only at outline pixels where bleeding is problematic, while maintaining full quality-enhancing ink ejection at non-outline pixels. This localized approach preserves the quality enhancement benefits in interior areas while preventing blurring at boundaries.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of uniformly reducing quality-enhancing ink across the entire image, the patent applies partial reduction only to the extent necessary at outline areas. The reduction ratio is calculated based on local gradient characteristics, applying minimal necessary reduction to preserve quality enhancement while preventing bleeding.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Effectively suppresses blurring at the outline parts of printed images by reducing the ink volume of transparent dots, thereby improving the quality of printed matter.
Implementation Method 1
there are cases when a bleeding phenomenon occurs for which colored ink is pulled to the white pixels due to the surface tension of the quality-enhancing ink
Data Source
AI summary
This invention is a printing control apparatus for generating print data to be supplied to a print unit to print. The print unit is capable of forming dots on a print medium by ejecting at least one type of colored ink containing a color material and a quality-enhancing ink for enhancing quality of a printed material. The printing control apparatus includes an outline area extractor configured to extract an outline area of an image expressed by given image data and a dot data generator configured to generate colored dot data and transparent dot data according to the image data. The dot data generator is configured to reduce ink volume of dots formed in the outline area among the transparent dots.