APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR REDUCING INK/TONER CONSUMPTION OF COLOR PRINTERS

摘要

Disclosed are methods for ink/toner saving including an ink/toner consumption controller which processes input image data via computer vision (CV) filtering models and other approaches to generate printable raster graphic, vector graphic and font character data on CMYK printing devices. User preferences may be specified using a GUI application. The ink/toner consumption controller manipulates the saving of colorent using dedicated techniques adopted for each type of document object. Models of color human perception are used for the combinations of the required percentages of a printer's CMYK ink/toner. These models are implemented by methods of CV selection rules for preferred objects and image areas, such as human faces, human skin and ROI, for maintaining maximum adherence to original image data. A color balancing method is used to ensure that CMY stacks consumptions are maintained similar throughout their usage. Additionally, methods are applied to compensate for missing CMYK colorants.