Patent ID: 6456395
Filing Date: 2002-09-24
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
A method for color separating a plurality of objects in an image to a plurality of partitions, each partition corresponding to a printing color, the image defined within an electronic file comprising a header portion and a body portion, and each object having an object color defined by a plurality of colorimetric values, comprising the steps of:determining whether at least one named color appears in the header portion, if at least one named color appears in the header portion and the named color is a spot color, replacing a plurality of colorimetric values associated with a key color with the plurality of colorimetric values associated with the named color, if no named color appears in the header portion, replacing the colorimetric values associated with the key color with the colorimetric values associated with the spot color; retrieving at least one object and the associated object color, determining whether the object color is a tint of the key color; in response to determining that the object color is a tint of the key color, mapping the object associated with the key color to a first partition; and in response to determining that the object color is not a tint of the key color, knocking out the object on the first partition and mapping the object to a second partition.