Abstract: Provided is a method for converting an input vector outline image to an output monochrome raster image consisting of only corner-contiguous pixels in a checkerboard pattern. Using a combination of a monochrome checkerboard raster image and a vector-based diamond grid, a determination is made as to which output raster pixels are activated. Efficiencies in file size and computational complexity are realized by using a checkerboard pattern and only half the possible number of raster output pixels. The method improves monitor and printer raster displays for any personal computing or related device, reducing the need for anti-aliasing and font hinting.

Abstract: An improved method for colorizing a digital halftone that uses both input color density and output halftone luminance to quantize and relocate color thereby reducing digital storage and transmission overhead capacity. The method utilizes a synergy between color and luminance inherent within the input image to enable the available space for color within the output luminance halftone to not exceed that necessary to allocate all of the input color information. An input color image is digitally reproduced using a separation of input primary color information from input grayscale information. A digital halftone, derived from the grayscale or luminance channel of a four-channel input image, is colorized by the invention's method of processing the remaining three additive or subtractive primary color channels. The halftone's two output colors are designated “black” and “transparent.

Abstract: Provided is a method for converting an input vector outline image to an output monochrome raster image consisting of only corner-contiguous pixels in a checkerboard pattern. Using a combination of a monochrome checkerboard raster image and a vector-based diamond grid, a determination is made as to which output raster pixels are activated. Efficiencies in file size and computational complexity are realized by using a checkerboard pattern and only half the possible number of raster output pixels. The method improves monitor and printer raster displays for any personal computing or related device, reducing the need for anti-aliasing and font hinting.

Abstract: An improved digital halftoning method that uses an input image's global gray levels to determine the local gray levels of a monochrome output image. Input multi-bit pixels grouped into two-pixel-by-two-pixel local subcells are variously aggregated into one or more larger supercells. The size of said supercell(s) is related to and limited by the size of the global input bitmap. A final monochrome gray level is derived from said supercell(s) and distributed within contained subcells. Subcell gray levels are expressed as interim whole monochrome pixels and gray level remainders. A comparison is made of the final supercell and the summed interim subcell monochrome gray levels. An ordering of the remainders is used for assignment of additional monochrome pixels, if necessary, to yield final subcell monochrome gray levels. Gray level rounding errors thus are quantized by reverse diffusion until a monochrome gray level for each of the global image's two-pixel-by-two-pixel local subcells is derived.

Abstract: An improved method of encoding and compressing digital halftones that utilizes a “none-of-the-above” method for designating variable-length runs. A monochrome input bitmap is rearranged slightly to reduce the patterns possible in contained digital halftone cells. This revised monochrome bitmap is parsed into subfiles to optimize run-lengths. The parsed subfiles are combined into a single file whose alternating runs of 1's and 0's are converted into successive variable-length binary numbers. One of the permutations of an antecedent binary is designated “none-of-the-above” and its use triggers a subsequent variable-length binary. All other permutations within each variable-length binary may designate a specific contained run-length and such use triggers a return to the initial binary in the series. The above method is reversed to decode and uncompress the encoded file to reproduce the original revised monochrome bitmap for display by a computer monitor or printer.

Abstract: An improved digital halftoning method that uses an input image's global gray levels to determine the local gray levels of a monochrome output image. Input multi-bit pixels grouped into two-pixel-by-two-pixel local subcells are variously aggregated into one or more larger supercells. The size of said supercell(s) is related to and limited by the size of the global input bitmap. A final monochrome gray level is derived from said supercell(s) and distributed within contained subcells. Subcell gray levels are expressed as interim whole monochrome pixels and gray level remainders. A comparison is made of the final supercell and the summed interim subcell monochrome gray levels. An ordering of the remainders is used for assignment of additional monochrome pixels, if necessary, to yield final subcell monochrome gray levels. Gray level rounding errors thus are quantized by reverse diffusion until a monochrome gray level for each of the global image's two-pixel-by-two-pixel local subcells is derived.

Abstract: An improved method of encoding and compressing digital halftones that utilizes a “none-of-the-above” method for designating variable-length runs. A monochrome input bitmap is rearranged slightly to reduce the patterns possible in contained digital halftone cells. This revised monochrome bitmap is parsed into subfiles to optimize run-lengths. The parsed subfiles are combined into a single file whose alternating runs of 1's and 0's are converted into successive variable-length binary numbers. One of the permutations of an antecedent binary is designated “none-of-the-above” and its use triggers a subsequent variable-length binary. All other permutations within each variable-length binary may designate a specific contained run-length and such use triggers a return to the initial binary in the series. The above method is reversed to decode and uncompress the encoded file to reproduce the original revised monochrome bitmap for display by a computer monitor or printer.

Abstract: An improved method of encoding and compressing digital halftones that utilizes a “none-of-the-above” method for designating variable-length runs. A monochrome input bitmap is rearranged slightly to reduce the patterns possible in contained digital halftone cells. This revised monochrome bitmap is parsed into subfiles to optimize run-lengths. The parsed subfiles are combined into a single file whose alternating runs of 1's and 0's are converted into successive variable-length binary numbers. One of the permutations of an antecedent binary is designated “none-of-the-above” and its use triggers a subsequent variable-length binary. All other permutations within each variable-length binary may designate a specific contained run-length and such use triggers a return to the initial binary in the series. The above method is reversed to decode and uncompress the encoded file to reproduce the original revised monochrome bitmap for display by a computer monitor or printer.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for reproducing images from precessionary art. The method comprises the steps of converting a piece of precessionary art to a multi-bit pixel depth bitmap, defining a first multi-pixel cell having particular dimensional attributes from the bitmap, determining a gray level for the first multi-pixel cell, dividing the first multi-pixel cell into two groups of alternating pixels with a first one of the groups being nominally on and a second one of the groups being nominally off, and deriving a first derivation cell depicting a maximum apparent gray from the first multi-pixel cell having the two equal groups of alternating pixels.