Abstract: A method of selective dithering for enhancing the printability of an image, including receiving input pixels of an original input image and identifying the pixel classification of the input pixels, where the pixel classification characterizes each of the plurality of pixels based, at least in part, on their respective gray values. Thereafter, a dither input is added to at least some of the input pixels to generate a filtered and dithered image, where the strength of the dither input applied to generate the filtered and dithered image is based on the pixel classification. Full dither may be applied for smooth pixels, and little or no dither may be applied for edge pixels.

Abstract: The input pixels in an image to be halftoned using error diffusion are dithered using a first type of passband dither. A second type of passband dither may also be added to a thresholding matrix used in halftoning. This second type of passband dither may be the same as the first type of passband dither. In such case, the second type of passband dither is a scaled multiple of the first type of passband dither. The halftoning process may be implemented in an application specific integrated circuit.

Abstract: Error diffusion is performed using a Floyd-Steinberg-like approach. A integer-representation of a running error is compressed by storing only its most significant bits and returning any remainder to the error diffusion processor. The running error is shifted to the right until only the desired number of significant bits remain, and this compressed error is stored. Any portion of the original running error that is lost due to the shifting is treated as a remainder and is returned to the error diffusion processor for use in calculating an adjusted current pixel value. The amount of the shift is retained in compressed form to keep track of the number of shifts needed to form a truncated running error from the compressed running error.

Abstract: A printer device receives and stores print-and-hold jobs. If a received print-and-hold job is a peer job, the printer device generates job data for communication to one or more peer printer devices. The printer device may include a print preview function and may provide a user with the ability to print a previewed document at a remote printer device.

Abstract: The invention provides a device and method for inserting a phrase in a message, wherein the message accompanies a data file representing a document that is sent from a multi-function device. The multi-function device uses a customizable phrasebook including a plurality of phrases that are each associated with an operator-actuated control, and wherein executing a selected operator-actuated control operates to insert the associated phrase in the message.