Patent ID: 8339662

Claim:
A method for improving image quality and throughput in a highlight color (HLC) print platform, comprising: scanning an input file using a color scan bar; receiving red, blue, and green (RGB) image data related to a scanned document image; segregating the image data to generate a neutral plane and an HLC plane; applying a black-and-white binary image processing protocol to the neutral plane and the HLC plane to generate a binary neutral plane and a binary HLC plane; generating a two-plane binary TIFF image file from the binary neutral plane and the binary HLC plane; and storing the TIFF image file in a memory for recall and printing; wherein generating the neutral plane comprises: generating a plane of achromatic data comprising the achromatic values of identified neutral pixels; assigning non-transparent, approximately pure white value to identified color and background pixels; and processing a resultant achromatic channel plane using a black-and-white binary image processing technique to generate the neutral plane having binary pixels; and wherein generating the HLC plane comprises: generating a plane of chromatic data comprising the chromatic values of identified color pixels; assigning a non-transparent, approximately pure white value to identified neutral and background pixels; and processing a resultant chromatic channel plane using a black-and-white binary image processing technique to generate the HLC plane having binary pixels.