User configured page chromaticity determination and splitting method

• US 20070046957A1
• Filed: 08/29/2005
• Published: 03/01/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Palo Alto Research Center, Inc. (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Farrell, Michael, Jacobs, William, Wells, Terry, Rumph, David, Robinson, David, Monahan, John
• Granted Patent: US 8,643,892 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 358/1.900
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/56 Processing of colour picture signals H04N1/52 takes precedence

Abstract

A method and system for determining chromatic content of a page of an electronic document. Object level color analysis is performed on a page of the electronic document to determine whether the page is chromatic, achromatic or has highlight color, based on the object level color analysis. The page is then classified as chromatic, achromatic or highlight color, based on the results of the determination.

Claims

1. A method of determining chromatic content of a page of an electronic document comprising:

performing object level color analysis on image objects of the page of the electronic document;

determining whether the page is chromatic or achromatic based on the object level color analysis; and

classifying the page as chromatic or achromatic.

2. The method according to claim 1, further including:

configuring the object level color analysis based, at least in part, on user input parameters.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the user input parameters include threshold values to determine object color.

4. The method according to claim 1, further including:

prior to the classifying of the page, detecting at least one rasterized image object of the image objects of the page;

performing pixel level color analysis on pixels of the rasterized image object;

determining the page is chromatic when a chromatic pixel is detected;

and

determining the page is achromatic when all rasterized image objects have been detected and all objects of the page are rasterized and are achromatic.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the page is classified as achromatic when all objects of the page are achromatic, and the page is classified as chromatic when all of the objects are chromatic.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein for a page having both chromatic and achromatic objects, further including classifying the pages as chromatic when a topmost object in the Z-order of the page is chromatic.

7. The method according to claim 5, wherein for a page having both chromatic and achromatic objects, and a topmost object in a Z-order of the page is achromatic, further including rasterizing the objects and classifying the page as chromatic when the first chromatic pixel is detected and classifying the page as achromatic when no chromatic pixel is detected.

8. The method according to claim 1, further including passing the classified page to an image forming device intended to image the classified page.

12. The method according to claim 11, further including determining a best matching highlight color of the object.

9. A method of determining chromatic content of a page comprising:

determining if object types of the page limit the objects of the page to only highlight color, and classifying the page as highlight color when the object types limit the imaged object types of the page to only highlight colored objects.

10. The method according to claim 9, further comprising:

determining if the object types of the page limit the objects of the page to only achromatic objects, and classifying the page as achromatic when the object types limit the imaged object types of the page to only achromatic objects;

determining if at least one of the objects of the page contains color content;

determining if the at least one imaged object, determined to contain color content, requires only highlight rendering, and classifying the page as highlight color; and

determining if the at least one imaged object, determined to contain color content, does not require only highlight rendering, and classifying the page as color.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the step of determining if at least one of the objects of the page contain color content includes, mapping the at least one object to a color space and assessing chromaticity of the at least one object by evaluating the color coordinates.

13. The method according to claim 10, further including configuring the color analysis based, at least in part, on user input parameters.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the user input parameters include inputting threshold values to determine object color.

15. The method according to claim 10, wherein the object types are PDL object types.

16. An image generating system for determining chromaticity of a page of an electronic document, the system comprising:

a computational device including processes to determine color content of a page of an electronic document and to classify the page as at least one of chromatic, achromatic or highlight color, the processes configured to analyze the page of the electronic document at an object level; and

a plurality of imaging devices in operational arrangement with the computational device, wherein the computational device forwards the classified page to one of the plurality of imaging devices configured to image pages having format the same as the classified page.

17. The image generating system according to claim 16, further including a user input interface configured for a user to input instructions defining parameters of operation of the processes.

18. The image generating system according to claim 16, further including a collator in connection with at least some of the plurality of imaging devices, the collator collecting physical pages from at least some of the imaging devices and placing the pages into a desired sequence.

19. The image generating system according to claim 16, wherein the object level of the page of the electronic document is a PDL object.

20. A method for determining chromatic content of a page, configured in a page description language, the method comprising:

providing user configurable inputs to configure a manner by which chromaticity of the page is determined;

examining, at the object level, all imaged objects in the page to determine chromaticity of all the imaged objects;

proceeding to process in accordance with at least one of i-iv,

(i) if all the imaged objects are chromatic, classifying the page as chromatic,

(ii) if all the imaged objects are achromatic, classifying the page as achromatic,

(iii) if the page contains chromatic and achromatic imaged objects,

determining a topmost imaged object in a Z-order of the page, and

classifying the page as chromatic when the topmost imaged object is determined to be chromatic,

(iv) if the page contains chromatic and achromatic imaged objects,

determining the topmost imaged object in the Z-order of the page,

rasterizing the page when the topmost imaged object is achromatic,

searching the rasterized page, and

proceeding with the process in accordance with at least one of a-b,

(a) classifying the page as chromatic when a chromatic pixel is found in the searching step, or

(b) classifying the page as achromatic when no chromatic pixel is found in the search step.