Abstract:
A printer is disclosed. The printer prints colors near saturation using mostly a first ink and prints saturated colors using mostly a second ink. The second ink has a reduced loading of the colorant in the first ink.

Description:
BACKGROUND 
       [0001]    Existing printing methods for printing near the black point of the color gamut with multiple inks may lack a sufficiently dark black or may causes visible steps in darkness near the black point. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0002]      FIG. 1  is a schematic illustration of a printing system according to an example embodiment of the invention. 
           [0003]      FIG. 2  is a graph showing the linearization table for black and grey inks in an example embodiment of the invention. 
           [0004]      FIG. 3A  is a table mapping color values to ink used in an example embodiment of the invention. 
           [0005]      FIG. 3B  is a plot of the amount of black and grey ink used for the color values between the black point and near black in an example embodiment of the invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0006]      FIGS. 1-3 , and the following description depict specific examples of the invention. For the purpose of teaching inventive principles, some conventional aspects have been simplified or omitted. Those skilled in the art will appreciate variations from these examples that fall within the scope of the invention. The features described below can be combined in various ways to form multiple variations of the invention. As a result, the invention is not limited to the specific examples described below, but only by the claims and their equivalents. 
         [0007]      FIG. 1  schematically illustrates a printing system  20  according to an example embodiment. Printing system  20  is configured to deposit one or more printing inks or ink upon a print medium  22  to form images such as graphics or photos. As will be described hereafter, printing system  20  forms images having a sufficiently dark black point as well as other enhanced properties. 
         [0008]    Printing system  20  includes media transport  30 , ink ejection systems  32 ,  34 , ink supplies  36 ,  38 ,  40 ,  42 ,  44 , actuators  46  and controller  48 . Media transport  30  comprises one or more devices configured to move and position print medium  22  with respect to ink ejection systems  32 ,  34 . In one embodiment, media transport  30  may be configured to move individual sheets of media. In another embodiment, media transport  30  may be configured to move a web of media. In one embodiment, media transport  30  include media contacting and engaging mechanisms such as rollers, belts and the like which position media upon a platen opposite the ejection systems. In another embodiment, media transport  30  may comprise a cylinder or drum about which the sheet or web of print media is supported. 
         [0009]    Ink ejection system  32 ,  34  comprise mechanisms configured to selectively eject or deposit printing ink onto print medium  22 . In one embodiment, each of ink ejection systems  32 ,  34  includes a multitude of nozzles  50  through which ink is ejected. In the example illustrated, ink ejection system  32  includes a first set  52  of nozzles  50  (the number and configuration of which are schematically shown) for ejecting ink provided by ink supply  36  and a second set  54  of nozzles  50  for ejecting ink supplied by ink supply  38  and a third set of nozzles  56  for ejecting ink supplied by ink supply  40 . Likewise, ink ejection system  34  includes a first set of nozzles  58  for ejecting ink supply by ink supply  42  and a second set of nozzles  60  for ejecting ink supplied by ink supply  44 . According to one embodiment, each of ink ejection systems  32 ,  34  comprise thermoresistance inkjet print heads. In another embodiment, each of ink ejection systems  32 ,  34  may comprise other ink ejecting mechanisms such as resistive inkjet print heads. Although the sets  52 - 60  of nozzles  50  are illustrated as being apportioned among the two ink ejection systems  32 ,  34 , in other embodiments, these sets  52 - 60  of nozzles  50  may alternatively be provided by a single ink ejection system or be apportioned among greater than two ink ejection systems. 
         [0010]    Ink supplies  36 - 44  deliver or supply ink to the nozzles  50  of ink ejection system  32 ,  34 . In one embodiment, ink supply  36 - 44  may comprise cartridges; tanks or other containers remote from fluid ejection systems  32 ,  34 , wherein a tube or other conduits delivers ink from the ink supply to the fluid ejection system. For example, in one embodiment, ink supplies  36 - 44  may comprise “off-axis” ink supplies. In another embodiment, ink supplies  36 - 44  may comprise compartments or chambers mounted to or provided as part of ink ejection systems  32 ,  34 . For example, in one embodiment, ink ejection systems  32 ,  34  and their associated ink supplies  36 - 44  may be provided by one or more integrated cartridges having both nozzles  50  and one or more of the fluid supplies  36 - 44 . 
         [0011]    In the example illustrated, ink ejection system  32  and its associated ink supplies  36 - 40  supply and eject different chromatic inks onto print medium  22 . In the example illustrated, ink supplies  36 ,  38  and  40  supply cyan, magenta and yellow inks, respectively to nozzles sets  52 - 56  of ink ejection system  32 . In other embodiments, ink ejection system  32  may be provided with additional nozzles sets and may be supplied with different or additional chromatic inks from additional ink supplies. Examples of additional or alternative chromatic inks include light or dark yellow, light or dark cyan or light or dark magenta inks. In the example illustrated, each of the chromatic inks supplied by ink supply  36 - 40  are pigment-based inks. In other embodiments, the inks of supplies  36 - 38  may alternatively be dye-based inks. In embodiments where printing system  20  does not print color images, ink ejection system  32  and ink supplies  36 - 40  may be omitted. 
         [0012]    Ink supplies  42 ,  44  supply different pigment-based inks which are deposited by sets  58 ,  60  of nozzles  50 , respectively, such that the different pigment-based inks may be applied on top of one another or may be applied separately at each image dark portion to form dark or black portions of an image. In other words, rather than dark portions of the image being formed from a single black ink, dark portions of the image may be formed from the two different pigment-based inks separately printed upon a media, one being a black ink and the other being a grayscale ink (including black ink and gray ink). In some embodiments, the black ink or grayscale ink may include a small amount of cyan or magenta, limited so as to not produce a substantial hue shift. As will be described hereafter, the particular combination of pigment-based inks supplied by ink supplies  42 ,  44  provide black portions of the image with improved contrast and dynamic range as well as having an improved (lower) L* min value. The manner by which the different pigment-based inks from ink supplies  42  and  44  are deposited is further controlled to further reduce the L* min value of the black portions of the image. 
         [0013]    Actuator  46  comprises one or more mechanisms configured to move or scan ink ejection systems  32 ,  34  across or relative to media transport  30  as well as print medium  22 . In one embodiment, actuator  46  may comprise a motor configured to drive a belt or cable couple to a carriage supporting ink ejection system  32 ,  34 . As ink ejection systems  32 ,  34  are moved or scanned across a print medium  22 , ink is ejected onto print medium  22 . Between such scans, media transport  30  may further be indexing or moving media  22  in a direction substantially orthogonal to the direction which actuator  46  is moving ink ejection system  32 ,  34 . In other embodiments, actuator  46  may have other configurations or may be omitted. For example, in embodiments where ink ejection systems  32 ,  34  are alternatively configured to completely span a dimension of print medium  22 , such as with a page-wide-array printer, actuator  46  may be omitted. 
         [0014]    Controller  48  comprises one or more processing units configured to generate control signals controlling and directing movement of print medium  22 , movement of ink ejection system  32 ,  34  by actuator  46  (unless ink ejection systems  32 ,  34  are part of the page-wide-array) and the ejection of ink onto print, medium  22  by nozzles  50 . Controller communicates with media transport  30 , ink ejection system  32 ,  34  and actuator  46  in a wired or wireless fashion. By controlling the manner and amount in which the pigment-based inks supplied by ink supplies  42  and  44  are deposited, controller  48  may further reduce the black point or L* min value of the image pixel. 
         [0015]    For purposes of this application, the term “processing&#39;unit” shall mean a presently developed or future developed processing unit that executes sequences of instructions contained in a memory. Execution of the sequences of instructions causes the processing unit to perform steps such as generating control signals. The instructions may be loaded in a random access memory (RAM) for execution by the processing unit from a read only memory (ROM), a mass storage device, or some other persistent storage. In other embodiments, hard wired circuitry may be used in place of or in combination with software instructions to implement the functions described. For example, controller  48  may be embodied as part of one or more application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). Unless otherwise specifically noted, the controller is not limited to any specific combination of hardware circuitry and software, nor to any particular source for the instructions executed by the processing unit. 
         [0016]    The inks in ink supplies  36 - 44  may contain pigments in a liquid vehicle or carrier medium as well as a binder. In addition to a binder, the carrier medium of ink may comprise additional additives or ingredients such as surfactants, dispersants, pH adjusters, buffers, humectants, antioxidants, solubilizers, ultraviolet absorbers, anti-corrosion additives, anti-kogation additives, or biocides. The pigments are generally insoluble in the carrier medium of the inks, but are typically dispersed/suspended in the form of small particles. 
         [0017]    The ink in ink supply  42  may have the same pigment as the ink in ink supply  44 , but will have a different ratio of pigment to binder. The ratio of pigment to binder is also known as the color loading of the pigment or colorant. In other embodiments, the ink in ink supply  42  may have a different pigment than the ink in ink supply  44 . In addition, other aspects of the liquid carrier of the ink contained in ink supply  44  (besides a ratio of binder to pigment) may be different from the ink contained in ink supply  42 . For example, in one embodiment, ink in ink supply  44  has an acrylic and polyurethane based binder. In one example embodiment of the invention, the inks in ink supplies  42  and  44  both have carbon black as the pigment. The ink with a lower loading of the colorant will look grey and the ink with the higher colorant loading will look black. Using two inks with the same pigment or colorant but with different loadings of the colorant is typically called dual loading. 
         [0018]    When printing with black and grey inks (dual loading of the black pigment) on smooth glossy media, such as photographic paper, maximizing, the use of the grey ink and minimizing the use of the black ink at the black point produces the darkest glossiest blacks. This is because the surface smoothness and reflectivity of the printed ink are as important as the absorptivity of the ink in producing the smallest reflection of light from a dark surface. Grey ink printed on a smooth glossy media will produce a smoother surface than black ink printed on the same smooth glossy media. Large amounts of the grey ink are used at the black point to create the dark black color. By using large amounts of grey ink, the total absorptivity of the grey ink will be similar to black ink. 
         [0019]    Using large quantities of grey ink when printing dark colors near the black point may create image quality problems due to the total amount of ink used, where the total amount of ink used is the sum of the grey ink, the black ink and the colored ink. Therefore it is advantages to print dark colors near the black point using mostly black ink. In one example embodiment of the invention, there will be a rapid change in the use of grey and black inks near the black point of the color map. Mostly grey ink will be used when printing at or very close to the black point of the color map and mostly black ink will be used when printing dark colors near the black point of the color map. 
         [0020]      FIG. 2  is a graph showing the linearization table for black and grey inks in an example embodiment of the invention. The vertical axis is the amount of ink to use. The horizontal axis is the 8 bit input value from the color map, running from a value of 0 for white to 255 for black. In some example embodiments the input or output values may be larger than 8 bits, for example 10 or 12 bits. Typically the colormap output values are 8 bits while the linearization out values are 12 bits. Line  278  is a plot for the black ink and line  280  is a plot for the grey ink. The amount of grey ink used increases as the input value from the color map goes from white (zero) towards black ( 255 ). The amount of grey ink used reaches a maximum amount at location C which is the black point for the color map ( 255 ). 
         [0021]    The amount of black ink used increases at first as the input value from the color map goes from white (zero) towards black. The amount of black ink used reaches a maximum at location A corresponding to an input value of 228. The input value of 228 corresponds to a dark color near the black point of the color map ( 255 ). More black ink is used than grey ink when printing these dark colors. As the input value increase past  228  and starts to draw very near to the black point, the amount of black ink used drops rapidly. At location B, the cross over point corresponding to an input value of 249, the amount of grey ink used surpasses the amount of black ink used. At the black point ( 255 ) almost all the ink used is grey ink with a little black ink. The ratio between the amount of black ink and grey, ink used between the dark colors and the black point, as well as the crossover point, may change depending on the printer, the media type, the ink composition, and the like. Each ink (black and grey) receives its own independent input value to this table from the colormap. 
         [0022]      FIG. 3A  is a table mapping color values to ink used in an example embodiment of the invention. The first three columns labeled RGB are the color values in RGB space. For clarity there are only a small number of color values shown in the table in the black and near black (NB) range. In an actual table there will be more values. Color maps are large beasts—for 8 bit RGB values, there are 16 million possible colors. It is generally prohibitive to directly specify all these RGB colors. So every N&#39;th R,G, and B value of the table (often every 16th) is specified, and linear interpolation is used to generate the intermediate values between the values that are specified. In  FIG. 3A  the values shown in bold are the actual values listed in the table and the values shown non-bold are the linear interpolated values. 
         [0023]    The black color value may correspond to RGB values of 0, 0, 0. The near black color value may correspond to the ROB values 36, 36, 36 (in 8 bit space). The number of steps between the black color value and the near black color value may vary. In  FIG. 3A  the fourth and fifth columns labeled Black and Grey are the colormap output values for black and grey. The sixth and seventh columns labeled Black and Grey are the ink values from the linearization table that correspond to the given ROB colormap input values. The last column is the total amount of ink used which is the sum of the black and grey ink used. For the black color value (RGB 0, 0, 0) the colormap output value for black is 255 which corresponds to an actual black ink value of 31. For the black color value (ROB 0, 0, 0) the Grey colormap output value is also 255 which corresponds to an actual grey ink value of 239. 
         [0024]    For the near black color value (RGB 36, 36, 36) the black colormap output value is 212 which corresponds to a black ink value of 174. For the near black color value (RGB 36, 36, 36) the grey colormap output value is 0 (zero) which corresponds to a grey ink value of 0 (zero). 
         [0025]      FIG. 3B  is a plot of the amount of black and grey ink used for the colormap values between the black point and near black in an example embodiment of the invention. The horizontal axis is the color value from near black (RGB 36, 36, 36) to black (RGB 0, 0, 0). The vertical axis is the amount of ink to use running from zero to the maximum amount. Line  380  is the plot for grey ink, line  378  is the plot for black ink and line  382  is the plot for the sum of the black and grey ink. The amount of grey ink used starts at zero for the near black (NB) color. As the color value moves from NB towards the black point the amount of grey ink used increases towards the maximum amount. At the black point color value the maximum amount of grey ink is used. The amount of black ink used starts near the maximum value for the NB color value. As the color value moves from NB towards the black point the amount of black ink used decreases towards zero. At the black point color value the amount of black ink used is near zero. Line  382  is the total amount of ink used. Line  382  shows that the sum of the amount of grey and black inks used remains fairly constant from the near black color value to the black point color value. 
         [0026]    The number of steps between the black color value and the near black color value may vary. The number of steps between near black and black may be empirically chosen by trial and error. The particular input value that defines the near black value is arbitrary. The near black value will be chosen such that there are enough entries before the near black value and after the near black value that ink quantities can be controlled in a smooth and predictable fashion. It is most likely that the number of values before the near black value will be considerably greater than the number of values after the near black value. The shape of the curve for the amount of black ink to use in between the near black color value and the black point may also be chosen by trial and error, or calculated to create a constant or near-constant total ink sum after determining the amount of grey ink the normal color map and the grey linearization table will produce for near black colors. 
         [0027]    In the examples above, dual loading of a black colorant was described. However, in other example embodiments of the invention, dual loading of chromatic colorants may be used. When dual loading the black colorant, the switch between using mostly black ink and using mostly grey ink starts at dark colors near black. When dual loading chromatic colorants, the switch between using the ink lightly loaded with the chromatic colorant and using the ink fully loaded with the chromatic colorant will start near the saturation point for that colorant. Of course the saturation point for the black colorant is black. Therefore the general case is having the switch between using the ink lightly loaded with a colorant and using the ink fully loaded with the colorant will start near the saturation point for that colorant.