Inversion of the Neugebauer equations

Abstract

The Neugebauer equations are considered as the basic physical model for printing systems and, hence, they have often been used either in their original form or in any adapted version to model color printers. The main problem with printer models is that they relate color as a function of colorant values. In practice, however, the inverse relation is needed and, hence, the printer model needs to be inverted. This is done by making use of iterative techniques and, as a result, only one colorant combination will be obtained to achieve a given color. However, in this publication it is shown that, in the case of the Neugebauer model for three colorants, there are up to six solutions with which a given color can be reached. Between these solutions there may be a number of pairs that are complex conjugated. Mathematical formulas to find all these solutions are given. The extension of this inversion technique for more than three inks and for the localized Neugebauer equations is presented. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.