Patent ID: 7616341

Claim:
A system for halftone screening comprising: a memory including a look-up table, the look-up table including, screen frequency data representative of the selected screen frequencies for an associated visual output rendering device, and tonal level data corresponding to the screen frequency data; means adapted for receiving image data representative of a continuous tone image; segmenting means adapted for segmenting received image data into apportioned image data representative of a plurality of adjacent image portions corresponding to a metadata map, wherein the segmenting means includes masking means adapted for masking received image data to form the apportioned image data; testing means adapted for testing each of the plurality of image portions relative to preselected criteria; means adapted for assigning one of a plurality of metadata values to each of the plurality of image portions in accordance with an output of the testing means, the metadata values including values corresponding to properties from a set comprising frequency, gradient, detail, and pattern; means adapted for communicating data representative of each tonal value as an array and each corresponding metadata value to the look-up table relating screen frequency and tonal level data in accordance with the metadata map, such that a corresponding grayscale halftone level data is output in accordance therewith; and means adapted for rendering the received image in accordance with grayscale halftone level data corresponding to each of the plurality of image portions.