Printing Control System Gloss Uniformity Clear Toner Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional printing technologies face challenges in achieving uniform gloss across surfaces, leading to increased costs due to the high expense of clear toner and irregularities in printed materials, while existing methods either increase print costs or allow for irregularities to generate uneven gloss.
Innovation Solution
A printing control system that determines a glossiness target value and adjusts color separation amounts of colored toners to achieve uniform gloss, using a glossiness target value determining unit, color separation amount determining unit, and color replacement processing to generate image data that ensures consistent gloss across the entire surface.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Illumination intensity
If clear toner is used to provide gloss on the surface, then surface glossiness is improved, but print cost increases due to the high expense of clear toner
Solution Approach 1:
The invention changes the parameter of color material type from clear toner to colored toners (cyan, magenta, yellow). By adjusting the color separation amounts of these colored toners, the system achieves gloss control without using expensive clear toner, thereby reducing print cost while maintaining surface glossiness
Solution Approach 2:
The invention replaces expensive clear toner with cheaper colored toners. By using multiple passes of colored toners with controlled color separation amounts, the system achieves the same gloss effect at lower cost, effectively substituting a cheap material for an expensive one
2Manufacturing precision
If clear toner is used to eliminate gloss difference, then gloss uniformity is improved, but print cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention changes the approach from using clear toner to control gloss to using colored toners with adjusted color separation amounts. By modifying the color separation parameters in multiple passes, the system achieves gloss uniformity across different surface portions without incurring the high cost of clear toner
Solution Approach 2:
The invention performs preliminary color separation adjustments before final printing. By calculating and setting appropriate color separation amounts for each pass based on the target glossiness, the system proactively prevents gloss differences rather than correcting them with expensive clear toner later
3Quantity of substance
If colored toners are used instead of clear toner, then print cost is reduced, but gloss uniformity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The invention introduces dynamic adjustment of color separation amounts across multiple printing passes. By varying the color separation amounts for cyan, magenta, and yellow toners in different passes based on the specific surface portion and target glossiness, the system dynamically achieves gloss uniformity using only colored toners
Solution Approach 2:
The invention uses multiple continuous passes of colored toners to build up the image. Each pass contributes to the final gloss effect, and by maintaining continuous adjustment of color separation amounts across all passes, the system achieves uniform gloss without interruption or need for expensive clear toner
Data Source
AI summary
A printing control device includes a glossiness target value determining unit that determines a glossiness target value indicating a target of glossiness of image data as a print target, a color separation amount determining unit that determines color separation amounts of a plurality of colored color materials as amounts of the colored color materials to be allocated to the respective colored color materials based on a sum of respective amounts of the colored color materials for the glossiness target value, a color separation processing unit that executes color replacement among a plurality of pieces of colored plane data based on the color separation amounts of the respective colored color materials, and an image data generator that generates the image data based on the pieces of colored plane data on which the color replacement has been executed.