Improved method and apparatus for dither array generation to reduce artifacts in halftoned image data utilizing ink reduction processing

摘要

An image preprocessing method and apparatus processes image date line-by-line using an error diffusion or dithering process to generate a halftoned image in which the radius of a dot representing a pixel is 1/dpi</=r</= 2ROOT 2/dpi. The method and apparatus selectively perform the halftone process on every other pixel to reduce in consumption and computation time while maintaining a high resolution. A starting binary array is generated for use in forming a dither array. Correction amounts are added to elements of the binary array having a first state that border elements of the binary array having a second state in order to create a starting gray pattern which corrects for overlap of printing dots used by a printing device. <IMAGE> <IMAGE>