Patent Document ID: 7580569
Application ID: 11268147
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for converting a first pixel of image data to a first pixel of contone image data, comprising: (a) electronically converting an image described in a page description language to a contone image; (b) electronically halftoning and encoding the contone image to generate two bits of data; (c) electronically determining a tagged state value for each pixel of a plurality of pixels of image data based upon the two bits of data and determining image data for a pixel based upon one of the two bits of data; (d) electronically reconstructing a first pixel of image data to create reconstructed contone image data; (e) electronically summing a plurality of tagged state value dependent weighted pixel values to create summed contone image data, each tagged state value dependent weighted pixel value corresponding to a pixel of image data within a predefined neighborhood of pixels of image data, the predefined neighborhood of pixels of image data having the first pixel of image data therein, a tagged state value dependent weighted pixel value being zero when the tagged state value of the corresponding pixel of image data indicates that the corresponding pixel of image data is an edge pixel and a tagged state value dependent weighted pixel value being equal to a product of a coefficient and a corresponding pixel value when the tagged state value of the corresponding pixel of image data indicates that the corresponding pixel of image data is a non-edge pixel; (f) electronically selecting, when the tagged state value of the first pixel of image data indicates the first pixel of image data is a non-edge pixel, the summed contone image data as an image data value for the first pixel of contone image data; and (g) electronically selecting, when the tagged state value of the first pixel of image data indicates the first pixel of image data is an edge pixel, the reconstructed contone image data as the image data value for the first pixel of contone image data.