Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus using two different black inks to reduce intercolor bleeding and provide high quality edge definition with thermal ink jet systems

US5568169A · kind A · utility

73Cited by
5References
19Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateOct 19, 1994
Grant dateOct 22, 1996
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 19, 2014

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06K2215/0094
  • WIPO fieldTextile and paper machines
  • WIPO sectorMechanical engineering

Abstract

A color ink jet printing device capable of substantially reduced intercolor bleeding includes an ink jet printer having at least one printhead and at least three separate ink supplies in communication with the printhead. A first ink supply contains a slow drying black ink. A second ink supply contains a fast drying black ink. A third ink supply contains a fast drying non-black color ink. Prior to printing, black image potions are determined. The black portions are printed using a pixel priming process, a border substitution process or a combination thereof to reduce intercolor bleed. The pixel priming process first prints a quartertone or halftone pattern using fast drying black ink, followed by subsequent whole tone printing superposed on the primed black image area using a slow drying black ink. The border substitution process analyzes a neighboring matrix of pixels surrounding each black pixel, preferably at least a 5.times.5 matrix, to determine if color pixels other than black are present. If so, that black pixel is printed using the fast drying black ink to reduce intercolor bleed. Otherwise, the black pixel is printed using slow drying black ink. This printing may be further…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.