Patent ID: 10079962

Abstract:
Systems and methods of separating a digital image using a specified colour palette into a sequence of separation plates is disclosed. The method comprises receiving the digital image and the specified colour palette; setting a desired integer number of ink quantization levels, Q; determining a plurality of ink levels (0%, 100%, and evenly spaced intermediate levels there between when Q>0); combining all of the plurality of ink levels by Cartesian product for each of the plurality of printing inks forming a list of possible ink combinations; calculating the colour values for one or more composite colours by linear combination of the colour values of each possible combination weighted by the levels, for each pixel colour value in the digital image finding the potential colour separation combination colour value that is the closest to the pixel colour value, adding each of the printing ink-ink level pairs that resulted in the closest potential colour separation combination colour value to a final combination colour palette, and including each of the plurality of pixels associated with the pixel colour value on a separation plate logically associated with each of the printing inks that resulted in the closest potential colour separation combination colour value; ordering the printing ink, ink level pairs within the final combination colour palette; and returning the final combination colour palette and separation plates.