Patent · US Active

System for detecting and avoiding printing of solid black areas

US7697149B2 · kind B2 · utility

2Cited by
15References
20Claims
0Family size

Assignees

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateAug 10, 2005
Grant dateApr 13, 2010
Priority date
Expiry dateAug 25, 2028

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06K15/1822
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method for processing a print page, by detecting if the page contains black areas exceeding a user-customizable coverage percentage, and providing a GUI for canceling, printing, and converting the print page. Printing presentation slides, for example, sometimes results in too many unattractive solid black sections, wasting toner or ink. When such a print page is detected, a user is alerted and allowed to convert the black areas, by inversion, dot-meshing, uniformly lightening page, lightening black regions, boundary preservation, and graduated lightening to lighten centers of solid black areas while leaving the contours intact. Methods also include specifying pixel blackness percentage based on grayscale and RGB values, previewing displaying contiguous black areas prominently, second detection step for contiguous areas, and processing PDL print objects by detecting and converting pen and brush colors.

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