Patent ID: 7199905

Claim:
A method for generating a halftone image from a continuous tone image having a plurality of color separation layers, comprising: halftoning a first one of the plurality of color separation layers to form a first color halftone separation layer; generating a first color error separation layer based on the first color separation layer and the first color halftone separation layer; modifying a second one of the plurality of color separation layers to form a modified second color separation layer based on at least the first color error separation layer; halftoning the modified second color separation layer to form a second color halftone separation layer; generating a second color error separation layer based on the second color separation layer and the second color halftone separation layer; modifying a third one of the plurality of color separation layers to form a modified third color separation layer based on at least one of at least the first color error separation layer and the second color error separation layer; halftoning the modified third color separation layer to form a third color halftone separation layer; generating a third color error separation layer based on the third color separation layer and the third color halftone separation layer; modifying a fourth one of the plurality of color separation layers to form a modified fourth color separation layer based on at least one of at least the first color error separation layer, the second color error separation layer, and the third color error separation layer; halftoning the modified fourth color separation layer to form a fourth color halftone separation layer; generating a fourth color error separation layer based on the fourth color separation layer and the fourth color halftone separation layer; modifying the first color separation layer to form a modified first color separation layer based on the entirety of the second color error separation layer, the third color error separation layer, and the fourth color error separation layer; and halftoning the modified first color separation layer to form the first color halftone separation layer; and displaying the halftone image.