Spot gloss and gloss control in an inkjet printing system

1 . A method for selectively applying gloss effects to any and/or all portions of an image, comprising:

with an inkjet printing system, printing a two-layer image from pixel image data corresponding to said image on a medium using a set of color print heads;

curing said printed two-layer image with a curing operation;

introducing a variable gap between two or more UV curing lamps;

performing said curing operation with one or more UV curing lamps;

covering or screening a portion of said one or more UV curing lamps via setting of a shutter mechanism that includes an electronic panel, the electronic panel having a selectable degree of opacity, wherein a slider control enables a granular selection of the opacity of the electronic panel, and wherein the opacity of the electronic panel sets an amount of covering or screening of the portion of said one or more UV curing lamps; and

selecting the amount of covering or screening of the portion of said one or more UV curing lamps, via the slider control, wherein selecting the amount of covering or screening varies a gloss effect in a second layer of the two-layer image by controlling a rate at which ink drops applied by said set of color print heads spread; and

initially passing said second layer through said variable gap, wherein said second layer remains uncured while said second layer clears said variable gap.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

generating at least two layers of said image using image editing software wherein at least one of said at least two layers comprises a first layer, and wherein at least one of said at least two layers comprises said second layer.

3 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

continuously moving a carriage in said inkjet printing system back and forth over a moving belt or table to deposit ink on said medium; and

in turn, continuously moving said medium by the moving belt, the table, or a roller, wherein said belt, table, or roller moves said medium in a direction that is perpendicular to that of said carriage.

4 . The method of claim 3 , further comprising:

providing multiple print heads on said carriage, wherein said multiple print heads are arranged in any of single row or multiple rows for each color.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

processing said image to be printed on said medium as the two-layer image or a multilayer image.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein ink of said ink drops comprises a UV curable ink.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said covering or screening is fully opaque to UV radiation.

8 . The method of claim 1 , being further configured for:

selectably varying a size of the variable gap by moving said one or more UV curing lamps relative to each other to establish said variable gap; and

setting said size of the variable gap to determine time required to cure said second layer.

9 . An apparatus for selectively applying gloss effects to any and/or all portions of an image, comprising:

an inkjet printing system including a set of color print heads configured for printing said image as a first layer from pixel image data on a medium configured to be printed with a two-layer image;

one or more UV curing lamps configured to cure said printed two-layer image with a curing operation, wherein the UV curing lamps are further configured to introduce a variable gap between two or more UV curing lamps; and

a shutter mechanism that includes an electronic panel having a selectable degree of opacity covering or screening a portion of said one or more UV curing lamps, wherein a slider control enables a granular selection of the opacity of the electronic panel, and wherein selecting the opacity of the electronic panel varies a gloss effect in a second layer of the two-layer image by controlling a rate at which ink drops applied by said set of color print heads spread and initially passing said second layer through said variable gap, wherein said second layer remains uncured while said second layer clears said variable gap.

10 . The apparatus of claim 9 , being further configured for generating at least two layers of said image using image editing software, wherein at least one of said at least two layers comprises said first layer, and wherein at least one of said at least two layers comprises said second layer.

11 . The apparatus of claim 9 , being further configured for:

continuously moving a carriage in said inkjet printing system back and forth over a moving belt or table to deposit ink on said medium; and

in turn, continuously moving said medium by a belt, the table, or a roller;

wherein said belt, table, or roller moves said medium in a direction that is perpendicular to that of said carriage.

12 . The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the set of color print heads include multiple print heads on said carriage, wherein said multiple print heads are arranged in any of single row or multiple rows for each color.

13 . The apparatus of claim 9 , being further configured for: processing said image to be printed on said medium as the two-layer image or a multilayer image.

14 . The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein ink used by the set of color print heads comprises a UV curable ink.

15 . The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein said covering or screening is fully opaque to UV radiation.

16 . The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein said covering or screening further comprises:

adjusting an amount of light allowed to pass through said shutter mechanism to effect ink curing as a function of any of density of said shutter or length of said shutter.

17 . The apparatus of claim 9 , being further configured for:

selectably varying a size of the variable gap by moving said one or more UV curing lamps relative to each other to establish said variable gap; and

setting said size of the variable gap to determine time required to cure said second layer.