Patent · US Expired

Generation of halftone overlays for combination with halftoned images

US5715382A · kind A · utility

33Cited by
2References
14Claims
0Family size

Assignees

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMay 2, 1996
Grant dateFeb 3, 1998
Priority date
Expiry dateMay 2, 2016

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04N1/3872
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

The generation of personalised documents, or documents including variable data, may require one or more varying overlay images to be printed on top of a background image. In order to avoid the generation of the background image for each document separately, a method is provided to store the background image permanently and to merge it with the overlay images just before printing. A transparency notion may be introduced to avoid masking of the background image by horizontally oriented rectangular overlays. The overlay image and the background image may be generated by a process of multilevel halftoning, suitable for printing by an electrophotographic printing device, using colored toner.

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