Abstract: Methods and apparatus are provided for electronically trapping a selected digital color image pixel. A plurality of pixels that surround the selected pixel are identified, a colorant value of each of the surrounding pixels is compared with a corresponding colorant value of the selected pixel, one of the surrounding pixels is identified to control trapping of the selected pixel, and the selected pixel is trapped based on a relationship between a colorant value of the selected pixel and a corresponding colorant value of the identified controlling pixel.

Abstract: The invention provides a plurality of compression schemes that provide improved compression ratios. An exemplary embodiment compresses each pixel by one of a plurality of different entropy-based compression schemes based upon a probability cost analysis. Another exemplary embodiment compresses each pixel based on a hybrid context formed using a plurality of compression schemes for improved probability determination, and thus improved entropy encoding.