Halftoning is one of the key stages of any printing image processing pipeline. With colorant-channel approaches, a key challenge for matrix-based halftoning is the co-optimization of the matrices used for the individual colorants, which becomes increasingly complex and over-constrained as the number of the colorants increases. Both choices of screen angles (in clustered-dot cases) or structures and control over how the individual matrices relate to each other and result in over- versus side-by-side printing of the colorants impose restrictions that are challenging to reconcile. The solution presented in this paper relies on the benefits of a HANS pipeline, where local Neugebauer Primary use is specified at each pixel and where halftoning can be performed using a single matrix, regardless of the number of colorants used. The provably complete plane-dependence of the resulting halftones and an application to security printing will be presented among the solution's benefits.
Peter Morovič, Ján Morovič, Jay Gondek, Matthew Gaubatz, Robert Ulichney, "PARAWACS: color halftoning with a single selector matrix" in Proc. IS&T 24th Color and Imaging Conf. , 2016, https://doi.org/10.2352/ISSN.2169-2629.2017.32.41