Patent ID: 7126723

Claim:
A method of processing an original image that is either a color or gray scale image and that can be anyone of (a) a continuous tone image, (b) a multi-tone image or (c) a halftone image, the method comprising: responding to brightness values of pixels of the original image to produce a horizontally and vertically warped line pattern including a series of warped lines representing warped brightness values of the pixels of the original image; and comparing the brightness values of pixels of the original image to the brightness values of spatially corresponding pixels of the horizontally and vertically warped line pattern to produce an engraving-style halftone image such that (a) pixels of the engraving-style halftone image that spatially correspond with pixels of the original image are black in response to the spatially corresponding pixels of the original image having a brightness value less than the brightness value of the spatially corresponding pixels of the horizontally and vertically warped line pattern; and (b) pixels of the engraving-style halftone image that spatially correspond with pixels of the original image are white in response to the spatially corresponding pixels of the original image having a brightness value greater than or equal to the brightness value of the spatially corresponding pixels of the horizontally and vertically warped line pattern; wherein production of the horizontally and vertically warped line pattern includes: (a) obtaining brightness values of pixels along a series of lines extending in a first of the horizontal or vertical directions of the original image; (b) deriving a gray level distribution curve in response to the brightness values of the pixels along each of the lines; (c) determining the spacing between adjacent halftone dots of each gray level distribution curve such that the areas of the gray level distribution curve between the adjacent dots are substantially the same, each line being formed by a search window including the pixels in the line and a predetermined number of pixels removed from the line in the second direction; and (d) for pixels on the line, summing the spacing of the halftone dots in the search window to obtain warping displacement values for pixels along the line so as to form a series of warped brightness pattern lines extending in the first direction.