Patent ID: 8520261

Claim:
An image glossiness controller employed in a color electrophotographic system that forms a multiple color image by superimposing at least two component color toner particles, said image glossiness controller comprising: at least two first halftone dot signal generators to convert at least two pieces of component color image information into at least two binary component color image signals per component color pixel using at least two first halftone dot characteristics, respectively; a main component color specifying unit to receive the at least two pieces of component color image information and identify one of the at least two component colors and output identification information thereof, a toner layer of said one of the at least two component colors mostly changes its thickness among those of the other at least one remaining component color on the same coordinate when formed and fixed alone having the greatest effect on a convexoconcavity of a multiple color toner layer when formed and fixed together with the at least one remaining component color toner layers; a clear toner image information generator to generate and output clear toner image information based on the inputs of the at least two pieces of component color image information per component color pixel, said clear toner image information representing an amount of clear toner to be attracted onto respective of the at least two component color images, said clear toner is clear and colorless; at least two second halftone dot signal generators to convert the clear toner image information into at least two binary clear toner image signals for the at least two component colors per component color pixel, respectively, using at least two second halftone dot characteristics each of said at least two second halftone dot characteristics having a reversed phase from each of the first halftone dot characteristics of the corresponding component color; and an image signal selecting unit to receive the identification information and the at least two clear toner image signals from the main component color specifying unit and the at least two second halftone dot signal generators, respectively, said image signal selecting unit selecting and outputting one of the at least two clear toner image signals to a printer controller corresponding to the identification information, said printer controller controlling component color toner and clear toner image formation.