Abstract:
A method of making digital colored prints by a particular printer operated by enabling software, the original images being provided on a colored film original includes scanning the colored film original to produce a digital image file of a digital image; adjusting the code values of the digital file to produce a color adjusted digital file, such adjustments including density and color balance correction adjustments; transferring both the color adjusted digital file and printing enabling software to a digital memory; and coupling the printer to the digital memory and causing the printer in response to the printing enabling software to operate on the color adjusted digital file to produce a transformed digital file and a print produced using such transformed digital file.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     Reference is made to commonly assigned U.S. patent application No. 08/407,539 filed Mar. 20, 1995, entitled “Method, Apparatus and Medium for Delivering a Processing Application Linked to Data to be Processed” to Fredlund et al, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/141,686 filed Aug. 28, 1998, entitled “Selecting, Arranging, and Printing Digital Images From Thumbnail Images” to Bubie et al the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference. 
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention relates to producing digital colored prints from scanned original film by a particular printer. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Digital colored images are often produced by electronic still cameras. They include an image sensor which has appropriate color filters. Analog signals are converted into digital signals and digital images are produced which are often called a digital file. There are many storage devices on which these digital images can be stored, including floppy magnetic discs, hard magnetic disc drives, optical discs including write once discs, digital tape, and flash cards. Oftentimes, a user will capture digital images on a digital camera and store them on a storage device. These images may later be downloaded to a host computer and printed using a local printer, such as a color inkjet printer, or sent via the internet to a remote printing service. 
     In another approach to providing digital colored images, a photographic film is scanned, digitized and converted to a digital file for each image. The Kodak PhotoCD™ system is an example of one such arrangement for scanning, digitizing, and providing a digital file for each image. Often, a user will have a service that will scan and digitize images to provide a digital file. These files are provided on memory storage media, such as a Kodak PhotoCD disc. A user may also purchase software programs or applications which will operate on these image files. These applications permit the customer to access, view, modify, and/or print the image files as desired. Adobe Photoshop™ is an example of software that can operate on digital image files to drive a printer for producing output images. The application that operate on the images to produce prints, such as Photoshop, are provided separately, rather than on the same PhotoCD disc that stores a customer&#39;s film images. As a result, it is difficult for an unskilled user to load the appropriate software into their host computer, launch the application (e.g. Photoshop) and then open the desired images from the PhotoCD, one at a time, in order to select and print images on their home printer. 
     A problem with many home printing arrangements is that they often require operator adjustment and that they are cumbersome and can take a significant amount of time. One reason for this is that there are a number of different printers and papers that can be used. In order to couple a printer to a stored color digital image, enabling software must be provided. High quality printers typically have a pull down or displayed menu which permits a user to select a particular type of printer transform to produce a print. For example, when Adobe Photoshop software is used to drive an Epson Stylus Photo Ink Jet Printer, the Epson printer has a number of user selectable modes such as Photo, Photoenhance, Graph, Text, and Advanced Photo, but these modes must be selected by the user. These can be used by skilled users to provide improved printing of continuous tone images from digital files made from scanning film negatives, such as from PhotoCD. However, the modes do not provide the best possible prints, since they do not take into account the print paper that is used. Furthermore, since a “Photo” mode is not automatically selected when a PhotoCD image is to be printed, an unskilled user may inadvertently use an undesirable mode, such as “text” or “graph”, when printing the continuous tone images, thus producing poor quality prints. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     It is an object of the present invention to provide an effective way of producing high quality digital colored prints from digital images captured on film. 
     Another object of this invention is to produce high quality digital customized colored prints with a minimum of operator intervention by selecting the appropriate printer mode of operation.. 
     Another object is to provide an arrangement that makes it possibly for a new computer user to simply and easily view their personal digital images on a home computer, select desired images for printing, and produce the best possible prints on their home printer. 
     These objects are achieved by a method of making digital colored prints by a particular printer operated by enabling software, the original images being provided on a colored film original, comprising the steps of: 
     a) scanning the colored film original to produce a digital image file of a digital image; 
     b) adjusting the code values of the digital file to produce a color adjusted digital file, such adjustments including density and color balance correction adjustments; 
     c) transferring both the color adjusted digital file and printing enabling software to a digital memory; and 
     d) coupling the printer to the digital memory and causing the printer in response to the printing enabling software to operate on the color adjusted digital file to produce a transformed digital file and a print produced using such transformed digital file. 
     The present invention can consistently produce high quality colored digitally produced prints from scanned film. At least two major steps are used. The scanned digital image is color adjusted prior to being transferred to a storage medium. It is stored along with enabling printing software. Thereafter, the color adjusted digital image is transformed so that it is customized to work with a particular printer. 
     An advantage of the present invention is that by color managing the digital image at or after scanning and then storing the image with enabling software on a medium and thereafter transforming the digital image to be consistent with a particular printer, a high quality colored digital print image is produced. It has been determined that it is necessary to first color adjust the digital image and then transform it for printing. By storing both the printing enabling software and the color adjusted digital image on the same medium, such as a magnetic disc, optical disc, or a flash memory card, users can conveniently make colored prints which are aesthetically pleasing. The present invention eliminates the need for operator adjustments and provides a way that a user can rapidly store colored digital images and then convert those stored colored digital images to aesthetically pleasing prints directly. In accordance with the present invention, the printer mode may be automatically selected so that it is able to produce a print which provides the best photographic rendition. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 illustrates a system which can be used for scanning a color film, storing a color adjusted scanned image on a storage medium and also storing printing enabling software on the same medium; 
     FIG. 2A illustrates a system which can be used for viewing and printing the images from compact disc using the software contained on compact disc; 
     FIG. 2B shows a block diagram illustrating a feature of inserting a memory card into a smart printer; 
     FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a printing selected customized images from scanned film; 
     FIG. 4 is a detailed flow chart of the block  110  shown in FIG. 3; 
     FIG. 5 is a diagram of a computer display screen displaying a group of thumbnail images stored on the storage medium using the software provided on the storage medium; and 
     FIG. 6 is a diagram of a computer display showing a print function display screen. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     FIG. 1 illustrates a system which can be used for scanning a color film, storing a color adjusted scanned image on a storage medium and also storing printing enabling software on the same medium. More specifically, a photographic original such as a film negative or a slide  10  is scanned by a scanning device  12 . The scanning device  12  produces a colored digital image having a number of pixels, for example 3072 columns by 2048 rows of red, green, and blue pixel values. Scanners that can be used in accordance with the invention are well known in the art, such as a the Kodak PCD-2000 Scanner. See also commonly assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,218,455; 5,461,492; 5,555,042; and 5,565,912. 
     The digital image signals from the scanner are forwarded to a computer workstation  14 . These digital image signals are color adjusted and temporarily stored or passed directly to a CD recorder  16  by the operation of the workstation  14 . The CD recorder  16  causes the color adjusted digital image data  22  to be recorded on a write-once compact disc  18 , along with software  20  to enable image printing. Alternately, a hybrid compact disc may be used, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,595,389 (incorporated herein by reference) where the software  20  is prepressed at the time the disc is manufactured, and only the digital images  22  are written to the disc as the film is scanned. The compact disc  18  may be supplied to the user with a reference strip  24  which is useful in calibrating the user&#39;s home printer to provide improved prints. 
     FIG. 2A illustrates a system which can be used for viewing and printing the images from compact disc  18  using the software contained on compact disc  18 . 
     The compact disc  18 , which can be a write once disc, is inserted into a read only memory (CDR-ROM) drive  44  in a host computer  40 . Alternatively, the images  22  and software  20  can be stored on a floppy magnetic disc medium  60  to provide digital image input. This floppy disc  60  is inserted into a floppy disc drive  46 . Images  22  and software  20  can also be provided on a removable memory card  32  and, as shown in FIG. 2A, this removable memory card, which can be flash EPROM memory, can be inserted into memory card reader  48  and can also be directly inserted into a smart printer  62  as shown in FIG. 2B. A CPU  50  will be understood to use software in accordance with the present invention that will be described in more detail in FIGS. 3-6. This software can be downloaded from the compact disc  18 , CD recorder (writer)  16 , or removable memory card  32  and stored on a hard drive  56 . The CPU  50  is directly coupled to a display monitor  52  and a keyboard  54 . A mouse  55  permits the user to readily communicate with the CPU  50 . The CPU  50  is in direct communication with a local printer  58  which produces a hard copy print. 
     Turning now to FIG. 3 which depicts a block diagram of a process in accordance with the present invention. In step  100 , the film is scanned by film scanner  12  in FIG.  1 . In step  102 , a film calibration transformation is performed. An important feature of the present invention is that the scanned colored digital images stored on the media in step  106  are provided in a proper image data metric as described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,609,978 and 5,432,906, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference. In order to provide the proper image data metric, the film scanner  12  must be calibrated for the particular film. This calibration transformation  102  is implemented in workstation  14  to convert a properly exposed digital film image to the proper image data metric. If the film image was under or over exposed, or was not taken under the normal film illumination condition (e.g. daylight balanced film taken under tungsten light), the image is further density and color balance adjusted in step  104  to correct for these conditions, as well as for any other conditions due to non-ideal film manufacturing or keeping problems. Automatic algorithms that provide this correction are well known in the art, and are accomplished in a conventional Kodak PhotoCD system. See, for example, commonly assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,969,204; 5,505,230; and 5,227,789. Furthermore, though not listed in FIG. 3, other image processing functions can also be performed, such as image sharpening and compression. 
     The color adjusted digital file is then stored to memory in step  106  along with enabling software  20 , for example an application program that allows users to view and print the images. This hybrid media is then inserted into a computer  108 . The digital memory  18 ,  60 , or  32  is inserted into the proper reader  44 ,  46 , or  48  in computer  40 , shown in FIG.  2 . 
     When the media, for example compact disc  18  is inserted into the computer system  40  via CD-ROM drive  44 , the enabling software  20  may be automatically installed and launched, as will be described in more detail below with reference to FIG.  4 . High quality digital colored prints are produced with minimum of operator intervention. This is accomplished automatically by code provided on each compact disc  18 . Software  20  that is particularly adaptable for providing some of these features is KODAK Picture Easy 3.0. Color adjusted digital images currently on the compact disc  18  are accessed by the software  20  for immediate use/printing. In order for this to occur, the computer system  40 , into which the compact disc  18  is being loaded, must evaluate the disc to determine if it has been enabled with the software  20 . If the computer  40  is already enabled with the KODAK Picture Easy 3.0 software, the software is launched (step  110 ) with all the color adjusted digital images on the compact disc  18  being accessible by the software for immediate use/printing. If the computer  40  is not enabled with the KODAK Picture Easy 3.0 software, the software installer for KODAK Picture Easy 3.0 is launched in order to enable the computer  40  to access the images on compact disc  18 . After the software has been launched, as shown in step  110 , images to be printed are selected in step  112  and printed by the printer  58  (FIG. 2) as shown in step  114 . 
     FIG. 4 will now be discussed in detail with reference to using the KODAK Picture Easy 3.0 software. As shown in step  210 , a CD  18  containing both the printing enabling software  20  and adjusted digital images  22  is inserted into CD-ROM drive  44  at computer  40  operating in an autorun mode, such as in, for example, Pentium™ PC utilizing the Windows 95™, Windows 98™ operating system. The computer  40  will launch the program to evaluate (step  220 ) the computer hard drive  56 . This evaluation (step  230 ) consists of searching the computer operating system for the existence of registry keys which indicate the location of the printing enabling software and confirming the location on the hard drive  56 . A determination is made (step  240 ) of the existence of the printing enabling software. If the printing enabling software does not exist in hard drive  56 , an installation program (step  250 ) will be initiated and it will install the printing enabling software. If the printing enabling software exists on the hard drive  56 , or has just been installed (step  250 ), the printing enabling software is directly initiated (step  260 ). In initiating the printing enabling software, the adjusted digital images  18  will automatically become available for printing. 
     A “preview picture screen”  300  (shown in FIG. 5) is displayed on the display screen  52  showing a two-dimensional array of thumbnail images  302  obtained from the compact disc  19 . The thumbnail images  302  preferably have a lower resolution than the full size images stored on computer disc  18 . The user can select multiple images (e.g., four images) by pressing either a control key (not shown) or a shift key (not shown) on the keyboard  54  while clicking the mouse  55  on any number of thumbnail images  302 . FIG. 5 shows that four thumbnail images  302   a,    302   b,    302   c,  and  302   d  (which are outlined) have been selected. If the disc  18  contains a large number of thumbnail images  302 , arrow controls  304  on the right portion of the “preview picture screen”  300  enable the user to scroll through the larger number of thumbnail images  302  to view a group of the thumbnail images  302  (e.g., 15 thumbnail images) at a time. 
     Once a thumbnail image  302  has been selected, the user can choose to crop the selected images  302  by selecting a “crop” icon  312 . The computer then brings up a crop screen (not shown) which allows images to be trimmed. 
     The user can then select additional images (e.g., three images) to be printed again pressing the control key or the shift key on the keyboard  54  while clicking the mouse  55  on any number of thumbnail images  302 . 
     The “preview picture screen”  300  also displays a set of function icons on the periphery of the screen  300 , including a “local print” icon  308  and a “slide show” icon  310 . The user can print all of these selected images on the local printer  58 , for example, a color ink jet printer, by clicking on the “local print” icon  308 . This brings up a “print function display screen”  400  shown in FIG.  6 . The user then chooses a type of layout. The user can choose one of several predefined “layout” icons  402  on the periphery of the “print function display screen”  400  which determines how many pictures appear on each page by selecting, for example, 1, 2, 4, 9, or 16 images to be printed per page. Alternatively, the user can select a custom layout  403 . The custom layout  403  allows the user to specify the number of columns and rows of images, the horizontal and vertical spacing between images, and the top margin and left margin of the printed page. Once a predefined layout is chosen, the images to be printed appear in a print preview area  422  on the “print function display screen”  400 . Based on the number of selected pictures to be printed on a page, the program will automatically select the orientation of the images to best fill up the page. FIG. 6 shows, as an example, four images  420   a,    420   b,    420   c,  and  420   d,  which correspond to the selected thumbnail images  302   a,    302   b,    302   c,  and  302   d,  respectively, shown in FIG.  5 . 
     Next, the user chooses whether to have the same or different images appear on each page. To have the same one image repeated on one page to be printed (e.g., four copies of one image per page), the user selects a “grouping” icon  404 . Alternatively, to have all of the selected images appear on the page(s) to be printed (e.g., four different images on one page), the user selects a “collating” icon  406 . 
     The user then chooses the number of sets of images to print, for example, three copies of each laid out page, by typing in the number of desired sets in a text field  408  on the left portion of the “print function display screen”  400  by using the up and down arrow keys on the right portion of icon  410 . After making these selections, the user can press a “print now” icon  410  and walk away from the host computer  14 . Each of the selected images will be printed automatically on the local printer  58 , without further user interaction. 
     The program prepares the printed layout by calculating the image size which enables the selected number of images to fit on a page, and rotating the selected images as necessary so that landscape oriented images and portrait oriented images fit together on the page to be printed. The image data is automatically interpolated or decimated to provide the proper image data to fill the page with the selected number of images. In this process, the program also calculates for “white space” to be positioned between the images to facilitate the cutting of the page into individual pictures. In other words, the program calculates the number of the selected images in vertical and horizontal directions, and calculates the size of the selected images in the vertical and horizontal directions to cause “white space” to separate the selected images. When the images are printed, the orientation of the images is printed to best “fill up the page” based on the selected number of images. 
     An example of a PC Card Flash and Compact Flash Card Reader  48  is the “CameraConnect” (™) made by ActionTec Electronics, Inc., 1269 Innsbruck Drive, Sunnyvale, Calif. Examples of removable memory cards  32  are the Flash Memory Versa card Model #P-CF030-PA, the COMPACTFLASH (™) made by SanDisc and described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,070,032; 5,172,338; 5,268,870; and 5,279,148. 
     EXAMPLES 
     Example 1 
     A series of film negatives and slides were first scanned using the Kodak PhotoCD Scanner. The digital images were color adjusted using PhotoCD software. The color adjusted digital images were then transferred to an optical write-once compact disc as Flashpix image files. 
     To this write-once compact disc was also transferred the printing enabling software known as the Kodak Picture Easy 3.0 so that this compact disc contained both the color adjusted digital images and the printing enabling software. 
     This compact disc was then inserted into a Gateway 2000 computer and the Kodak Picture Easy Software was installed from the disc. 
     Using the Kodak Picture Easy Software, the color adjusted digital images were imported from the compact disc and sent to an Epson Stylus Photo Ink Jet Printer with no image manipulation. In a few minutes the printed images were obtained on Kodak Ink Jet Paper and were of very high quality. 
     Example 2 
     A series of film negatives and slides were first scanned using the Kodak PhotoCD Scanner. The digital images were color adjusted using PhotoCD software. The color adjusted digital images were then transferred to a 30 MB Flash Memory Versa Card using a CameraConnect (™) PC Card and Compact Flash Reader and a Gateway 2000 Computer and stored to Flashpix image files. 
     To this same Flash Memory Versa Card was also transferred the printing enabling software known as Kodak Picture Easy 3.0 so that this Flash Memory Card contained both the color adjusted digital images and printing enabling software. 
     This Flash Memory Card was then used by the computer to access the Kodak Picture Easy Software. 
     Using the Kodak Picture Easy Software, the color adjusted digital images were imported from the Flash Memory Card and sent to an Epson Stylus Photo Ink Jet Printer with no image manipulation. In a few minutes the printed images were obtained on Kodak Ink Jet Paper and were of very high quality. 
     Example 3 
     The Flash Memory Card of Example 2 which contained both the scanned film images and the printing enabling software was inserted into a Panasonic Photo Printer PV-PD2000. In this case the digital images are read by the Printer and printed directly to its thermal paper. Since the original scanned film images were of high quality the final prints were also of high quality. 
     The present invention is particularly useful for producing a memory storage product comprising a readable storage medium produced by the steps outlined above. The memory storage product can be a removable memory card  32  using flash EPROM memory which is useable directly by a printer  62  or it can alternately comprise, for example, magnetic storage media such as magnetic disc (such as a floppy disc) or magnetic tape; optical storage media such as optical disc, optical tape, or machine readable bar code; solid state electronic storage devices such as random access memory (RAM), or programmable read only memory (PROM); or any other physical device or medium employed to operate a printer. 
     The invention has been described in detail with particular reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, but it will be understood that variations and modifications can be effected within the spirit and scope of the invention. 
     Parts List 
       10  slide 
       12  film scanner 
     computer workstation\host computer 
       16  CD recorder (writer) 
       18  write-once compact\computer disc with digital memory with adjusted digital images 
       19  compact disc 
       20  enabling software 
       22  color adjusted digital image data 
       24  reference strip 
       32  removable flash memory card or digital memory 
       40  host computer 
       44  read only memory (CDR-ROM) drive 
       46  floppy disc drive 
       48  memory card reader 
       50  CPU 
       52  display monitor\screen 
       54  keyboard 
       55  mouse 
       56  hard drive 
       58  local printer 
       60  floppy disc 
       62  smart printer 
       100  scan film 
       102  calibration transformation 
       104  density &amp; color balance adjustment 
       106  produces digital media with images &amp; software 
       108  place digital media in computer 
       110  (install)/launch application 
     Parts List (con&#39;t) 
       112  select images to be printed 
       114  print selected images 
       210  insert CD 
       220  launch computer evaluation 
       230  launch computer 
       240  found printing enabling software 
       250  install printing enabling software 
       260  launch printing enabling software 
       300  preview picture screen 
       302  thumbnail images 
       302   a  thumbnail images 
       302   b  thumbnail images 
       302   c  thumbnail images 
       302   d  thumbnail images 
       304  arrow controls 
       308  local print icon 
       310  slide show icon 
       312  crop icon 
       400  print function display screen 
       402  layout icons 
       403  custom layout 
       404  grouping icon 
       408  text field 
       406  collating icon 
       410  print now icon 
       420   a  image 
       420   b  image 
       420   c  image 
       420   d  image 
       422  print preview area