Patent ID: 6992686

Claim:
A method for dynamically controlling the file size of a color digital image, comprising: (a) receiving uncompressed color digital image data; (b) using the digital image data, segmenting the digital image to identify segments of the image, including identification of a first set of segments of the image suitable for representation as a single color and a second set of segments suitable for representation as contone; (c) estimating the size of the compressed image based upon said segmenting step, wherein at least first set of segments are to be compressed in accordance with a first method applicable to single color segments to create a first image plane and the second set of segments are to be compressed in accordance with a second method applicable to contone segments to create a second image plane; (d) determining whether an estimated size of the compressed image is within a predefined file size limit; and if so, proceeding at step (g), otherwise (e) identifying at least one segment within the second set of segments for representation as a single color and for incorporation into said first set of segments and said first image plane; (f) repeating the steps above, beginning at step (c); (g) creating the first image plane based upon image data for the first set of segments and creating the second image plane based upon image data for the first set of segments, wherein at least the second image plane is compressed; and (h) outputting the image data for the first and second image planes.