Spectral reflection and dot surface prediction models for color halftone prints

The proposed new spectral reflection model enhances the classical Clapper-Yule model by taking into account the fact that proportionally more incident light through a given colorant surface is reflected back onto the same colorant surface than onto other colorant surfaces. It comprises a weighted mean between a component specifying the part of the incident light that exits through the same colorant as the colorant from which it enters (Saunderson corrected Neugebauer component) and a component specifying the part of the incident light whose emerging light components exit from all colorants (Clapper-Yule component). We also propose models for taking into account ink spreading, a phenomenon that occurs when printing an ink halftone in superposition with one or several solid inks. The ink-spreading model incorporates nominal-to-effective surface coverage functions for each of the different ink superposition conditions. A system of equations yields the effective ink surface coverages of a color halftone as a weighted mean of the ink surface coverages specific to the different superposition conditions. The new spectral reflection prediction model combined with the ink-spreading model yields excellent spectral reflection predictions for clustered-dot color halftones printed on an offset press or on thermal transfer printers. © 2005 SPIE and IS&T. DOI: 10.1117/1.1989987