Adaptive color reproduction method to various user's monitor environment in color printer

摘要

The Color Management System in recent printers adopts ICC profiles for both monitors and printers. However, the ICC profile doesn't contain the characteristics of reproduced color on each monitor, because the color on each monitor is changed by user adjustment such as color temperature, brightness, and contrast adjustment. It is also depended on the backlight type and lifetime. As a result, unwanted color is reproduced on the printed paper, not like that on the monitor. To overcome the color difference between monitors and printers, we need to control the information of ICC profile. That is, first, the ICC profile is generated by the measurement of monitors having user set, then, through the CMS, the color on monitors can be produced on printed paper. However, it is difficult to apply the above system for normal users due to absence of measuring equipment and time consuming process. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel color matching technique based on the estimation of condition for each monitor having user set. The estimation is performed by a simple comparison visual test using a test image on printed paper and monitor. Then, the condition of monitor is applied to the ICC profile. As a result, the new ICC profile contains the color difference between user monitor and printer. The experimental results show the printed images using our proposed method have almost similar color with those on monitors.