Method of calibrating a scanner to a printer
View Patent ↗An electronic representation of the range of color combinations that can be displayed on the monitor is created and printed. The printed representation is then scanned by the scanner. A relationship is then identified between the monitor and the scanner. This relationship is then used as the basis to determine a relationship between the scanner and the monitor. Compensation is made for errors and the relationship is further developed. Finally, a scanner RGB to printer CMYK lookup table is built.
1. A method of calibrating a scanner in a system having a printer, a monitor, a CPU and a monitor-to-scanner lookup table, the calibration method comprising the steps of:
(a) creating an electronic representation corresponding to a range of color combinations of Red, Green and Blue, said range being consistent with a monitor color combination range of said monitor;
(b) printing a printer image on said printer using said monitor-to-printer lookup table;
(c) scanning said printer image with said scanner to create a scanner image;
(d) creating a monitor-to-scanner relationship by relating said electronic representation to said scanner image;
(e) creating a scanner-to-monitor relationship using said monitor-to-scanner relationship;
(f) creating a scanner-to-printer relationship using said scanner-to-monitor relationship and said monitor-to-printer relationship, and
(g) storing said scanner-to-printer relationship.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein said creating a scanner-to-monitor relationship further comprises:
(1) selecting a plurality of points in a scanner color space;
(2) associating said scanner color space points with a plurality of points in a monitor color space;
(3) adjusting said plurality of monitor color space points using tri-linear interpolation;
(4) adjusting said plurality of scanner color space points using tri-linear interpolation; and
(5) adjusting said plurality of scanner color space points by error compensation.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein said creating a scanner-to-monitor relationship further comprises data translation on said monitor-to-scanner relationship by formula and error compensation.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein said scanner-to-printer relationship is a look-up table.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein said electronic representation contains n 3 colors.
6. A computer program, on a computer usable medium for calibrating a scanner to a printer, the program comprising:
means for creating an electronic representation of a range of color combinations;
means for printing a printer image of said electronic representation using a pre-existing monitor-to-printer relationship;
means for scanning said printer image to create a scanner image;
means for creating a monitor-to-scanner relationship using said electronic representation and said scanner image;
means for computing a scanner-to-monitor relationship;
means for creating a scanner-to-printer relationship for correlating a scanner point to a corresponding printer point; and
means for storing said scanner-to-printer relationship.
7. The program of claim 6 wherein said scanner-to-printer relationship is a lookup table.
8. The program of claim 6 wherein said means for computing said scanner-to-monitor relationship includes data translation by formula and error compensation.
9. A method of calibrating a scanner in a system having a printer, monitor, and a monitor-to-printer relationship, the method comprising the steps of:
(a) computing a scanner-to-monitor relationship for relating a scanner color space to a monitor color space, comprising:
(1) selecting a plurality of points in a scanner color space;
(2) associating said scanner color space points with a plurality of points in a monitor color space;
(3) adjusting said plurality of monitor color space points using tri-linear interpolation;
(4) adjusting said plurality of scanner color space points using tri-linear interpolation; and
(5) adjusting said plurality of scanner color space points by error compensation;
(b) creating a scanner-to-printer lookup table for relating a printer point to an identified scanner point; and
(c) storing said scanner-to-printer lookup table for use by said system to create an accurate copy of a scanned image on said printer.