Patent ID: 7809213

Claim:
A scaling system for scaling a bitonal image, comprising: at least one computing device; a pixel reduction system that generates a scaled image by reducing pixel pairs down to single scaled pixel based on a set of scaling rules, wherein the scaling rules are incorporated into a look-up table, wherein the scaling rules map an input comprised of four pixel values to an output comprised of one pixel value, wherein the four pixel values include two values of a pixel pair and two values of two pixels that flank the pixel pair; and provide for sixteen possible values for the input ranging from binary 0000 to 1111, and two possible values for the output comprising 0 and 1, and wherein the input values 0000, 0001, 0010, 0011, 0100, 0101, 0110, 0111, 1000, 1001, 1010, 1011, 1100, 1101, 1110 and 1111 map to outputs 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, respectively for a normal setting; and a line density control system that allows the scaled image to be set to lighter, normal or darker by changing the scaling rules, wherein the line density control system sets the outputs associated with inputs 0011 and 0101 to 0 to achieve a darker image.