Hand-held printing device and method for tuning ink jet color for printing on colored paper

• US 8,705,117 B1
• Filed: 06/18/2008
• Issued: 04/22/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Marvell International Limited (Marvell Technology Group Limited)
• Original Assignee: Marvell International Limited (Marvell Technology Group Limited)
• Inventors: McClelland, Todd A., Simmons, Asher
• Primary Examiner(s): Vo, Quang N
• Application Number:
  US12/141,717
• Time in Patent Office: 2,134 Days
• Field of Search: 358/1.9, 358/515, 358/518, 382/254
• US Class Current: 358/1.9
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 3/36 for portability , i.e. hand-held printers or laptop printers B41J3/4075 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 3/407 for marking on special material
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 15/1868 for fitting to an output condition, e.g. paper colour or format
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 15/1878 Adjusting colours image colour correction or control for documents in general H04N1/60

Abstract

A hand-held printer is disclosed. The hand-held printer includes an image sensor configured to determine a color having plurality of color components associated with a print medium, an image processing module configured to process image data into a plurality of color layers; and a print module configured to receive information related to the plurality of color components from the image sensor and information related to the plurality of color layers from the image processing module. The print module being configured to enhance at least one of the plurality of color layers based on at least one of the corresponding plurality of color components associated with the print medium.

Claims

1. A hand-held printer comprising:

an image sensor configured to sense a background color of a print medium, and generate background color data corresponding to the sensed background color of the print medium; and

a controller configured to;

receive the background color data;

receive image data corresponding to an image to be printed;

process image color data corresponding to the image data,

compare the background color data with the image color data;

determine whether at least some of the background color data corresponding to the print medium and the image color data corresponding to the image data correlate to each other, and

modify the image data by modifying at least one of a plurality of color layers that comprise the image data when at least some of the background color data corresponding to the print medium is determined to correlate with the image color data corresponding to the image data.

2. The hand-held printer of claim 1, wherein at least one of the background color and the image color data is represented as a red-green-blue (RGB) color or a cyan-magenta-yellow-black (CMYK) color.

3. The hand-held printer of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to modify the image data by utilizing color components associated with the background color of the print medium in place of a similar color within the processed image color data of the image data.

4. The hand-held printer of claim 1, wherein the background color of the print medium is a characteristic of the print medium before printing.

5. The hand-held printer of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to determine that at least some of the background color data corresponding to the print medium correlates to the image color data corresponding to the image data by determining at least one color component of the print medium corresponds to at least one color layer of the image data, and

wherein the controller is configured to modify the image data by modifying the at least one color layer of the image data that corresponds to the at least one color component of the print medium.

6. The hand-held printer of claim 5, wherein the controller is configured to modify the image data in order to reduce an amount of printing substance dispensed onto the print medium during a printing by reducing an amount of printing substance that is dispensed corresponding to the at least one of the plurality of color layers that is modified.

7. The hand-held printer of claim 5, wherein the controller is configured to modify the at least one of the plurality of color layers by replacing the at least one of the plurality of color layers with an adjusted color layer.

8. The hand-held printer of claim 7, wherein the adjusted color layer is selected based on a predetermined range of variance with the replaced at least one of the plurality of color layers.

9. The hand-held printer of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to modify the image data according to an image enhancement mode by:

determining an offset between at least one of a plurality of color components that comprise the background color data and at least one of the plurality of color layers that comprise the image data; and

correcting the image data by adjusting at least one of the plurality of color layers by an amount based on the determined offset.

10. The hand-held printer of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to modify the image data according to a color replacement mode by:

identifying a color within the plurality of color layers that comprise the image data;

selecting a replacement color, and

replacing the identified color within the plurality of color layers that comprise the image data with the selected replacement color.

11. A method for tuning an image utilizing a hand-held printer, the method comprising:

determining, using a controller, a background color of a print medium, and generate background color data corresponding to the determined background color of the print medium;

receiving the background color data;

receiving image data corresponding to an image to be printed;

processing, using the controller, image color data corresponding to the image data;

comparing the background color data with the image color data;

determining whether at least some of the background color data corresponding to the print medium and the image color data corresponding to the image data correlate to each other, and

modifying, using the controller, the image data by modifying at least one of a plurality of color layers that comprise the image data when at least some of the background color data corresponding to the print medium is determined to correlate with the image color data corresponding to the image data.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising dispensing a printing substance on the print medium in accordance with the modified image data.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein at least one of the background color and the image color data is determined as a function of a red-green-blue (RGB) color scheme or a cyan-magenta-yellow-black (CMYK) color scheme.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the background color of the print medium is a characteristic of the print medium before printing the enhanced image data on the print medium.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein determining whether at least some of the background color data corresponding to the print medium correlates to the image color data corresponding to the image data comprises determining at least one color component of the print medium corresponds to at least one color layer of the image data, and

wherein modifying the image data comprises modifying the at least one color layer of the image data that corresponds to the at least one color component of the print medium.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the image data is modified in order to reduce an amount of printing substance dispensed onto the print medium during a printing by reducing an amount of printing substance that is dispense corresponding to the at least one of the plurality of color layers that is modified.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the at least one of the plurality of color layers is modified in order to ignore the at least one of the plurality of color layers during dispensing of a printing substance.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the at least one of the plurality of color layers is modified by replacing the at least one of the plurality of color layers with an adjusted color layer.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the adjusted color layer is selected based on a predetermined range of variance with the replaced at least one of the plurality of color layers.