Very cost-effective incremental printing method and apparatus to directly reduce bidirectional hue shift

摘要

A program controls colorant-applying elements (e.g. nozzles) individually, to apply colorants in an order that yields consistent colorant-addressing sequences. In another aspect, the invention inhibits particular elements in particular installments (e.g. printing passes) to produce a fixed color bias between colorants of at least one colorant pair; the other colorant is statistically downweighted to correct the bias. In a third aspect, a printmask-generating program automatically makes a usable mask based on neighborhood and timing constraints; this program is constrained, so as to minimize or eliminate hue shift.