Photo-inkjet printing method based on limited colorant amount and dot-visibility ordering

Abstract

This paper proposes a method for reducing unnecessary colorant usage based on limiting the total-colorant quantity and dot-visibility ordering. First, CIELAB values are estimated for an input RGB image using a color-mixing model, and then compared with pre-calculated CIELAB values corresponding to all combinations of the CMYKlclm colorants using a color-difference constraint, thereby determining the initial CMYKlclm candidates. Next, a limitation on the total-colorant quantity is imposed on the initial CMYKlclm candidates to prevent a poor edgesharpness, and the final CMYKlclm candidates are then determined based on different dot-visibility orderings of C, M, Y, K, lc, and lm to reduce the use of excessive amounts of colorants. Experiments show that the proposed method can effectively reduce excessive colorant usage, while preserving a good image quality.