CN119856480A - Color table modification - Google Patents

Abstract

The present disclosure describes a device comprising instructions for aligning a first scanned image of a printout of a first test image with a second scanned image of a printout of a second test image such that a color from the first test image is aligned with a corresponding color from the second test image, determining a difference between the color from the first scanned image and the corresponding color from the second scanned image, identifying a color value of the color from the first test image based on an identifier of a first printing device generating the printout of the first test image, and altering the corresponding color in a color table of a second printing device generating the printout of the second test image based on the difference and the color value of the color from the first test image.

Description

Color table modification

Background

The computing device may enable a user to utilize the computing device to operate for work, education, gaming, multimedia, and/or other purposes. The computing device may be used in a non-portable environment, such as on a desktop, and/or may be portable to allow a user to carry or otherwise carry the computing device in a mobile environment. These computing devices may utilize a printing device to generate images on a substrate or print medium. The printing device may perform a number of different printing functions to improve the image quality of images generated on the print medium. Printing devices may utilize a variety of different printing substances, such as ink, toner, or other types of printing substances.

Drawings

Fig. 1 shows an example of a system for performing a color table modification.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a user interface for performing a color table change.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a user interface for performing a color table change.

Fig. 4 shows an example of an apparatus for performing color table modification.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a memory resource storing instructions for performing a color table change.

Fig. 6 shows an example of a method for performing color table modification.

Detailed Description

Users may utilize the computing device for various purposes, such as for business and/or entertainment purposes. As used herein, the term "computing device" refers to an electronic system having a processor (e.g., processor resources, hardware processors, etc.) and memory resources. Examples of computing devices may include, for example, notebook computers, tablet computers, desktop computers, all-in-one (AIO) computers, network devices (e.g., routers, switches, etc.) and/or mobile devices (e.g., smartphones, tablet computers, personal digital assistants, smart glasses, wrist-worn devices such as smartwatches, etc.), among other types of computing devices. As used herein, a mobile device refers to a device that is (or can be) carried and/or worn by a user.

The computing device may be used with multiple peripheral devices and/or embedded devices. For example, the computing device may be included within or used with a printing device. As used herein, a printing device (e.g., printer, inkjet printer, laser printer, three-dimensional printer, etc.) may be a device that deposits a printing substance on a substrate to generate an image on the substrate. For example, the printing device may be an inkjet printing device that deposits a printing fluid (e.g., ink, etc.) onto a sheet of printing medium (e.g., paper, plastic, etc.) to create an image on the sheet of printing medium. In this example, the printing device may be communicatively coupled to the computing device, which may provide print data for the print job to the printing device and/or as part of the printing device to receive the print data from the remote computing device. As used herein, print data for a print job may include information related to an image to be generated on a print medium. For example, the print data may include red, blue, green (RGB) input images to be generated by the printing device on the substrate.

Different printing devices may use different types of printing substances, which may be deposited and combined in different amounts to produce different colors. Even if the same print data is utilized to generate images, different amounts, different combinations, and/or different color tables used to generate images on a particular substrate may result in different printing devices generating images that appear different on the substrate. For example, a particular image within the print data may include green. In this example, the first printing device may receive the print data and generate green using a first color table corresponding to the first printing device. The first color table may include color attributes for green and corresponding printing parameters to define an amount of printing substance and/or other color combinations to generate green. In this example, the second printing device may receive the same print data as the first printing device and utilize a second color table corresponding to the second printing device. In this way, the second printing device may utilize different printing substances, combinations of different printing substance colors, and/or different print substance amounts based on the corresponding color table, which may result in the green color of the image printed by the first printing device appearing different from the green color of the image printed by the second printing device.

In some examples, a spectrophotometer may be utilized to compare the color generated by the first printing device with the color generated by the second printing device. As used herein, a spectrophotometer is an instrument that measures the amount of photons (intensity of light) that are absorbed by photons after passing through a sample stain, in these examples, the results of a color comparison can be utilized to alter multiple colors in a color table to mimic or resemble different color tables. For example, the color table may be shifted such that all colors within the color table are shifted or modified to the same or similar extent such that the modified color table will generate an image similar to a different color table. However, it may be difficult to identify a difference between the first image and the second image and shift the color table based on the difference using a spectrophotometer. In some cases, shifting the color table of the first printing device to emulate the second printing device may result in the first plurality of colors printed by the first printing device being similar to the corresponding colors printed by the second printing device, while the second plurality of colors printed by the first printing device are dissimilar to the corresponding colors printed by the second printing device.

The present disclosure describes performing color table modifications that more accurately alter the color table of a particular printing device to emulate a different printing device. In some examples, the color table modification may be performed by an end user of the first printing device to emulate a second printing device. For example, the first printing apparatus may be a printing apparatus to be replaced, and the second printing apparatus may be a printing apparatus replacing the first printing apparatus. In this way, the color table modification may ensure that the replacement printing device prints out a similar color as the replaced printing device. In a specific example, individual colors or regions of interest may be identified within a particular image to ensure that the individual colors within the region of interest are more accurately similar between the replacement printing device and the replaced printing device.

Fig. 1 illustrates an example of a system 100 for performing color table modification. In some examples, the system 100 may show how a first test image 102 printed by a first printing device is compared to a second test image 104 printed by a second printing device to generate a converted or simulated color table 110. As used herein, a color table may include an ordered set of colors that are used to render a display according to a range of data values. In some examples, the color table may include a plurality of colors that a particular printing device is capable of generating. In this way, the printing device may utilize the color table to generate an image based on print data received from the computing device.

In some examples, the first test image 102 may include an image printed by a first printing device on a substrate (e.g., print medium, paper, plastic, etc.). In some examples, the image printed on the substrate to generate the first test image 102 may include a plurality of colors corresponding to a color table of the first printing device. For example, the first test image 102 may be a printout of a color table used by the first printing device, and in some examples, the printout of the color table may be a plurality of color blocks organized by color gradient such that adjacent color blocks have more similar color attributes than color blocks farther apart.

As used herein, a color block may represent a particular color that may be generated by a particular printing device, corresponding to a particular color in a color table used by the particular printing device. In this way, the first test image 102 may include a plurality of color blocks corresponding to a plurality of colors in the first color table used by the first printing apparatus. Likewise, the second test image 104 may include a plurality of color blocks corresponding to a plurality of colors in a second color table used by the second printing device.

In some examples, the same print data may be provided to the first printing device to print the first test image 102 as is provided to the second printing device to print the second test image 104. For example, the print data used by the first printing device to print the first test image 102 may include the same color values as the print data used by the second printing device to print the second test image 104. In this way, the corresponding color blocks of the first test image 102 may be compared to the corresponding color blocks of the second test image 104. As described herein, even though the color values are the same, the print data may include features specific to a particular type of printing device. That is, the print data for the colors may be the same or similar, while other portions of the print data may be different or specific to a particular type of printing device.

In some examples, the scanner device may be used to scan the first test image 102 to generate a first scanned test image 106 of the first test image 102 printed by the first printing device, and in these examples, the scanner device may be used to scan the second test image 104 to generate a second scanned test image 108 printed by the second printing device. In some examples, the scanner device used to scan the first test image 102 may be the same scanner device used to scan the second test image 104. For example, the scanner device may be a web scanner device that may capture an image of the first test image 102 to generate the first scanned test image 106 and use the same components to capture an image of the second test image 104 to generate the second scanned image 108.

In some examples, the first scan test image 106 may be aligned with the second scan test image 108. For example, a plurality of color blocks in the first scan test image 106 may be aligned with a corresponding plurality of color blocks in the second scan test image 106. In some examples, the first test image 102 and the second test image 104 may include marks (e.g., fiducial marks, alignment marks, etc.) that may be used within the first scan test image 106 and the second scan test image 106 to align corresponding color blocks.

In some examples, a plurality of color blocks within the first scan test image 106 may be converted to red-green-blue (RGB) color values and/or a plurality of additional color values (e.g., brightness, saturation, hue, L x a x b x, darkness, other color features, etc.). Further, the plurality of color blocks within the second scan test image 108 may be converted to RGB color values and/or a plurality of additional color values. In this manner, the RGB color values or other color values of the first scan test image 106 may be compared to the corresponding RGB color values or other color values of the corresponding colors within the second scan test image 108.

As further described herein, the differences between the color blocks of the first scan test image 106 and the color blocks of the second scan test image 108 may be used to generate the simulated color table 110. The simulated color table 110 may be a first printing device to second printing device color conversion table that may be utilized by the second printing device to generate color blocks that are the same or similar to the color blocks generated by the first printing device. As further described herein, the simulated color table 110 may be stored as a configuration file for a relationship between the first printing device and the second printing device. For example, when the color table of the remote printing device is the same or similar model as the second printing device and the remote printing device is modified to emulate the same or similar model of printing device as the first printing device, the remote printing device can utilize the emulated color table 110.

Fig. 2 shows an example of a user interface 212 for performing a color table change. In some examples, user interface 212 may be displayed on a display device. For example, a computing device embedded within or communicatively coupled to the printing device may include a display device to display an image with a light source. In these examples, the display device may be used to display a visual representation of an updated or altered color block of the color table of the printing device.

In some examples, the plurality of color blocks in the color table may be altered by comparing the color values from the first scan test image with corresponding color values from the second scan test image. In these examples, each of the plurality of color blocks may be altered in a similar manner, as further described herein with respect to altering a single color block of the plurality of color blocks. The user interface 212 may show how the first color tile 214 may be changed to the second color tile 216. However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto, and similar color table modifications may be performed for a plurality of color blocks in the color table.

As described herein, the first color block 214 may be a designated color block of a plurality of color blocks from the first scan test image. As described herein, the first scanned test image may be a scanned image of a test image printed by a printing device to be emulated or replaced by a new printing device or an updated printing device. The second color block 216 may be a color corresponding to the first color block from among a plurality of color blocks of the second scan test image. As described herein, the corresponding color patch or second color patch 216 may be a color that the second printing device generates when provided with the same print data received by the first printing device for printing the first color patch 214.

The first color block 214 may be analyzed to determine a first set of RGB values 218. The RGB values 218 of the first color block 214 may include corresponding values of red, corresponding values of green, and/or corresponding values of blue determined based on the scan test image of the first color block 214. The second color block 216 may be initially printed by the second printing device with the same print data, however, the generated second color block 216 may be analyzed to have a second set of RGB values 220. In this way, the difference between the first set of RGB values 218 and the second set of RGB values 220 may be utilized to alter the second color block 216 within the color table to generate RGB values that are closer to the first set of RGB values 218.

Further, the second color block 216 may be modified with additional color features 222. For example, additional color features 222 may include, but are not limited to, brightness, saturation, hue, and other color features. In this manner, the plurality of color characteristics of the second color block 216 may be altered such that the second color block 216 is similar to the first color block 214.

In some examples, the first color tile 214 may be a selected color tile of a first scanned test image of a printed test image from a first printing device. For example, the user interface 212 may display a first scan test image and enable selection of a first color block 214. In these examples, selection of the first color block may result in display of a user interface 212 as shown in fig. 2. That is, the second set of RGB values 220 may be altered to ensure that the second color block 216 matches the first set of RGB values 218 of the first color block 214. In these examples, the first color tile 214 may be a priority color or a selected color that may be designated as having a higher level of importance to ensure that the second color tile 216 is closer in color than other color tiles in the color table of the second printing device. In this way, the preferred color or selected colors may be more accurately altered than other colors in the color table.

In some examples, the priority color may be changed to a particular set of RGB values, in which examples the remaining colors in the color table may be changed to maintain a particular gradient level between adjacent colors. For example, the adjacent colors of the second color block 216 may be similar colors or colors of the second color block 216 within a contact color table. In some examples, multiple color blocks surrounding or bordering the second color block 216 within the color table may be shifted to ensure a particular gradient level or color change from a particular color block to an adjacent or similar color block. In this way, the updated color table will not have a color change from one color block to a similar color block that exceeds the color change threshold. As used herein, a color change threshold may be a color change of a particular color block within a color table with a set of RGB values or individual values of RGB values (e.g., red, green, or blue values, etc.) between a similar or adjacent color block. When a certain gradient level is not maintained among a plurality of color blocks in the color table, the quality of the printing apparatus may be degraded or lowered. That is, colors intended to be closely related by RGB values or other color values will appear uncorrelated or have large differences, which can result in a low print image quality.

Fig. 3 shows an example of a user interface 330 for performing color table modification. As described herein, the user interface 330 may be an interactive Graphical User Interface (GUI) or other type of user interface that allows a user to interact with a computing device or printing device. In some examples, the user interface may include a scan test image 332, the scan test image 332 including an image 336. Other test images described herein utilize color gradients having a plurality of different colors that represent a color table for a particular printing device. However, the user interface 330 shows a scanned test image 332, the scanned test image 332 comprising a specific image or logo that may be a selected region of interest.

As described herein, the region of interest may be a plurality of colors that are relatively more important than other colors. For example, the region of interest may be a logo or trademark image of tissue. In this example, the colors associated with the logo or trademark image may be selected by an organization to ensure that a new or different printing device is able to print the logo or trademark image with a particular color that has been used and/or printed by other printing devices. In some examples, user interface 330 may be used to select a first color 338-1 within image 336 and/or to select a second color 338-2 within image 336. In some examples, user interface 330 may allow for selection or deselection of first color 338-1 and/or second color 338-2. In some examples, the selected color may be used by the user interface 212 as shown in fig. 2 to alter the selected color to more closely represent the corresponding color of the image 336 generated or printed by a different printing device or to have a similar color value (e.g., RGB value, hue value, brightness value, etc.) as the corresponding color of the image 336 generated or printed by a different printing device.

In some examples, the scan test image 332 may include a marker 334 for specifying a region of interest, and in some examples, the scan test image 332 may be a scan image of a print test image generated by a printing device. In these examples, the marks 334 (e.g., fiducial marks, definition marks, boundary marks, etc.) may be positioned within the print data provided to the first and second printing devices such that the image 336 printed by the first printing device may be aligned with the corresponding image 336 printed by the second printing device. In this manner, the marks 334 may be utilized to align the image 336 as the test image is scanned to generate the scanned test image 332.

In some examples, the marker 334 may specify a region of interest to perform a color histogram within the region defined by the marker 334. As used herein, color histograms include image processing techniques to generate a distributed representation of colors in defined areas of the image 336 or mark 334. For a digital image, such as scan test image 332, the color histogram may represent the number of pixels having colors in each of a list of fixed color ranges that cover the color space of the image, i.e., the set of all possible colors. In some examples, the color of the substrate (e.g., paper, background, etc.) may be removed from the color histogram, and the remaining colors may be identified as a first color 338-1 and a second color 338-1. Although two colors are identified, a plurality of additional colors may also be identified by the color histogram and provided as optional colors.

Fig. 4 shows an example of a device 440 for performing color table modification. The device 440 may be a printing device and/or a computing device that may include a processor 442, and the processor 442 may execute instructions 446, 448, 450, 452 to perform the methods described herein. In some examples, device 440 may include or be communicatively coupled to a computing device. In other examples, device 440 may include a controller or other hardware to execute instructions 446, 448, 450, 452 and/or perform the methods described herein.

In some examples, device 440 may include a processor 442 (e.g., processor resource, processing resource, etc.) communicatively coupled to a memory resource 444. As further described herein, the memory resource 444 may include instructions 446, 448, 450, 452 that are executable by the processor 442 to perform particular functions. In some examples, device 440 is coupled to a print engine to deposit a printing substance onto a substrate to generate an image on the substrate.

The device 440 may include components such as a processor 442. As used herein, processor 442 may include, but is not limited to, a Central Processing Unit (CPU), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), a Metal Programmable Cell Array (MPCA), a semiconductor-based microprocessor, or other combination of circuitry and/or logic for coordinating execution of instructions 446, 448, 450, 452. In other examples, the printing device 540 may include instructions 446, 448, 450, 452 stored on a machine-readable medium (e.g., memory resources 444, non-transitory computer-readable medium, etc.) and executable by the processor 442. In a particular example, the device 440 utilizes a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions 446, 448, 450, 452 that, when executed, cause the processor 442 to perform corresponding functions.

As described herein, the device 440 may be a printing device that utilizes a printing substance (e.g., ink, toner, etc.) to generate an image on a substrate. The printing substance may be deposited on a substrate and have specific color properties. For example, a printing substance may be deposited on a substrate to generate an image having a plurality of colors, wherein each of the plurality of colors may have a particular attribute. Multiple colors may be generated using combinations of different colors of printing substances. In this way, the first printing device can generate an image having the color of the first set of attributes, and the second printing device can generate an image having the color of the second set of attributes, even if the first printing device and the second printing device utilize the same digital image for printing the job.

In some examples, device 440 may be a computing device that may include instructions for sending test images to a first printing device for generation by the first printing device and sending test images to a second printing device for generation by the second printing device. In this manner, the device 440 may provide the same print data and/or test image for printing by the first printing device and the second printing device. As described herein, when the first and second printing devices are different printing devices, the resulting test images generated by the first and second printing devices on the corresponding substrates may be visually different. In other examples, the first printing device may utilize a first print color table and the second printing device may utilize a second print color table that is different from the first print color table.

In some examples, the device 440 may include instructions for instructing the scanner device to perform a first scan of a first test image on a first substrate generated by a first printing device. Further, the device 440 may also include instructions for instructing the scanner device to perform a second scan of a second test image on a second substrate generated by a second printing device. In these examples, the scanner device may be a network scanner device that may utilize the same scanning hardware to capture a scanned image of a first test image on a first substrate and a corresponding scanned image of a second test image on a second substrate. This may ensure scan image consistency (e.g., color consistency, scan quality consistency, etc.) between the first scan image of the first test image and the second scan image of the second test image.

In some examples, the device 440 may include instructions 446 executable by the processor 442 for aligning a first scanned image of a printout of a first test image with a second scanned image of a printout of a second test image such that a color from the first test image is aligned with a corresponding color from the second test image. As described herein, a first scan image of a printout of a first test image may be aligned with a second test image within a second scan image such that colors within the first test image are aligned with corresponding colors within the second test image. In this way, a first color patch within a first test image generated using print data may be aligned with a second color patch within a second test image generated using the same or similar print data. For example, a first set of print data may be provided to a first printing device to print a first test image and a second set of print data may be provided to a second printing device to print a second test image. In this example, the RGB values may be the same or similar for multiple color blocks, but the locations of the color blocks and/or other print data associated with the corresponding printing devices may be different.

In some examples, the device 440 may include instructions 448 executable by the processor 442 for determining a difference between a color from a first scanned image and a corresponding color from a second scanned image. As described herein, the difference between the color from the first scanned image and the corresponding color from the second scanned image may be a difference in color values. For example, the difference may be represented by a difference in RGB values. In these examples, differences in each of the RGB values may be utilized to determine how to alter or update the RGB values.

In some examples, the device 440 may include instructions 450 executable by the processor 442 for identifying a color value from a color of the first test image based on an identifier of a first printing device generating a printout of the first test image. In some examples, the color value of the color from the first test image may correspond to a value associated with a color table of the first printing device or to a value used by the first printing device to generate the color from the first test image. In this way, the value used to generate a particular color may be used as an input value, which may correspond to an output value of the determined color value of the first test image.

In some examples, the identifier may be a code printed on the printed output of the first test image. The identifier may be scanned by the scanner device. In some examples, the identifier may correspond to a unique identifier of the printing device. In some examples, the identifier may be used to identify a model, type, and/or particular printing device. For example, the identifier may be a model number for identifying the type of the printing apparatus. In another example, the identifier may be a serial number that may be used to identify a particular device.

In some examples, device 440 may include instructions 452 executable by processor 442 for altering a corresponding color in a color table of a second printing device that generates a printout of a second test image based on the difference and a color value from the color of the first test image. As described herein, the test images printed by the first and second printing devices may be the same print data, including the same or similar color values for a particular color block. As described herein, however, the print data may also include data specific to a particular type of printing device, which may be different when the first and second printing devices are different types or models of printing devices.

In this way, the first printing device may utilize the first set of color values in response to the print data, and the second printing device may utilize the second set of color values in response to the print data. In this way, the first set of values and the difference in resulting color between the first test image and the second test image may be used to alter the color table of the second printing device to enable the second printing device to generate a color that is relatively closer in color value to the first printing device.

In some examples, the device 440 may include instructions for receiving a selection of a single color within a first scan of a first test image. In these examples, the color values of the individual colors in the color table of the second printing device are changed and are independent of the corresponding colors. In these examples, a single color may be selected using a user interface that displays the first scan test image. In this way, a particular color may be selected and isolated for modification independent of other colors in the color table.

As described herein, a particular color block that is independently altered may also result in other color blocks within a particular threshold region of the color table being altered. For example, multiple colors that are similar to the selected color may be altered to ensure a particular gradient between different colors in the color table. In some examples, the number of changed proximate colors or the threshold region in the color table may be based on the change to the selected color. That is, a larger change to the selected color may result in a larger threshold area to be changed or a greater number of proximate color blocks to be changed based on the change to the selected color.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a memory resource 544, the memory resource 544 storing instructions 554, 556, 558, 560, 562 for performing color table changes. In some examples, the memory resource 544 may be part of a computing device, a printing device, or a controller communicatively coupled to a printing system, which may include the printing device or components of the printing device. For example, the memory resource 544 may be part of the device 440 as referenced in fig. 4.

In some examples, the memory resource 544 may be communicatively coupled to the processor 542, and the processor 542 may execute instructions 554, 556, 558, 560, 562 stored on the memory resource 544. For example, memory resource 544 may be communicatively coupled to processor 542 via a communications path 553. In some examples, communication path 553 may include a wired or wireless communication connection that may allow for communication between devices and/or between components within a single device.

Memory resource 544 may be an electronic, magnetic, optical, or other physical storage device that stores executable instructions. Thus, the non-transitory machine-readable medium (MRM) (e.g., memory resource 544) may be, for example, a non-transitory MRM including Random Access Memory (RAM), read Only Memory (ROM), electrically Erasable Programmable ROM (EEPROM), a storage drive, an optical disk, and the like. A non-transitory machine-readable medium (e.g., memory resource 544) may be disposed in the controller and/or the computing device. In this example, the executable instructions 554, 556, 558, 560, 562 may be "installed" on a device. Additionally, and/or alternatively, the non-transitory machine-readable medium (e.g., memory resource 544) may be a portable, external, or remote storage medium, for example, that allows the computing system or printing system to download instructions 554, 556, 558, 560, 562 from the portable/external/remote storage medium. In this case, the executable instructions may be part of an "installation package". As described herein, a non-transitory machine-readable medium (e.g., memory resource 544) may be encoded with executable instructions for performing a color table modification.

When executed by the processor 542, the instructions 554 may include instructions for aligning a first scanned image of an image printed by a first printing device with a second scanned image of an image printed by a second printing device. As described herein, images printed by the first printing device and the second printing device may be printed using the same print data. In this way, the images will be based on the same print data, and the differences between the colors of the images will correspond to the differences between the printing devices. For example, the first printing device may use a different type of printing substance than the second printing device. In another example, the first printing device may use a different specific color table than the second printing device. In this way, the test image printed by the first printing device may appear to have a different color than the test image printed by the second printing device.

When executed by the processor 542, the instructions 556 may include instructions for identifying a first color table of a first printing device based on a first scanned image of the image and identifying a second color table of a second printing device based on a second scanned image. As described herein, the first color table corresponding to the first printing device may include identified color values of a plurality of colors within the test image. Likewise, the second color table of the second printing device also includes identified color values of the plurality of colors within the test image generated by the second printing device. In this way, the actual color values of the print test images from the first printing apparatus and the second printing apparatus can be used as the corresponding color tables of the first printing apparatus and the second printing apparatus. In some examples, the first color table may include color attributes (e.g., RGB values, etc.) of each of a plurality of color blocks of the test image based on the first scan image, and the second color table may include color attributes of each of a plurality of color blocks of the test image based on the second scan image.

When executed by processor 542, instructions 558 may include instructions for identifying a color attribute difference between the first color table and the second color table. As described herein, each of the plurality of color blocks within the first scanned image may be compared to a corresponding plurality of color blocks within the second scanned image to determine a color attribute difference. For example, differences between RGB values within a plurality of color blocks within a first color table and RGB values within a plurality of corresponding color blocks within a second color table may be identified or calculated.

The instructions 560, when executed by the processor 542, may include instructions for generating a third color table based on the identified differences. As described herein, the third color table may be a simulated color table that may be used by the second printing device to generate an image on the substrate having the same or similar resulting color attributes as the first printing device. In some examples, the third color table or the simulated color table may be a conversion color table that may be used to alter the value associated with the second color table to alter the color value generated by the second printing device to be the same as or closer to the color value generated by the first printing device.

When executed by processor 542, instructions 562 may include instructions for generating a configuration file using the third color table, the first identification of the first printing device, and the second identification of the second printing device. In some examples, a configuration file may be generated for use by the second printing device when the second printing device is to emulate the first printing device. For example, the second printing device may comprise a user interface that may be used to select the identity of the first printing device. After selecting the first printing device, the second printing device may utilize a configuration file that includes a third color table or a simulated color table for the first printing device.

In some examples, the memory resource 544 can include instructions for receiving an identification of the first printing device from the third printing device, determining that the third printing device includes a second identification of the second printing device, and providing a configuration file to the third printing device to alter an existing color table of the third printing device with the third color table. In this example, the second printing device may be a specific type or model of printing device. In these examples, the third printing device may be the same type or model of printing device as the second printing device. In some examples, the third printing device may want to simulate or print the same or similar image as the first printing device. In these examples, the configuration file may be provided to a third printing device to utilize a third color table or emulation table.

In some examples, the memory resource 544 may include instructions for displaying the first scanned image on a display device and receiving a selection of a region of interest from the first scanned image. In these examples, the color blocks in the first color table are selected based on a selected region of interest that includes a plurality of colors having corresponding color blocks. As described herein, the memory resource 544 can include instructions for generating a color histogram of a region of interest to identify colors within the region of interest that correspond to a color block. In these examples, the region of interest may be selected to identify a particular color or a particular plurality of color priorities. As described herein, selected colors having a relatively high priority may be altered independently of the remaining colors in the third color table. In addition, color blocks that are similar to the selected color may also be altered based on changes to the selected color blocks.

Fig. 6 shows an example of a method 670 for performing a color table change. In some examples, method 670 may be performed by a computing device, a printing device, and/or a controller. That is, method 670 may exhibit instructions that are storable on a non-transitory computer-readable medium and that are executed by a processor to perform the functions of method 670. In some examples, a portion of method 670 may be performed by a computing device coupled to a printing device, where a portion of method 670 is performed by the computing device and another portion is performed by the printing device.

At 672, method 670 may identify a first printing device to be emulated by a second printing device. As described herein, identifying a first printing device to be emulated or emulated by a second printing device may be performed by receiving a selection of an identification of the first printing device at the second printing device or at a computing device associated with the second printing device. For example, the address of the first printing device may be provided to the user interface. The address may be an IP address or an email address associated with the first printing device. In some examples, the identity or address of the second printing device may also be provided to the user interface.

At 674, method 670 may send a color table test image to be printed by the first printing device and the second printing device. In some examples, the color table test image may be print data to be printed by a printing device. In some examples, the color table test image print data may be sent to the first printing device based on the address provided to the user interface and sent to the second printing device based on the address provided to the user interface. As described herein, the color table test image print data may be the same print data provided to the first printing device and the second printing device.

At 676, the method 670 may receive a first scanned image of a color table test image printed by a first printing device and a second scanned image of a color table test image printed by a second printing device. In these examples, the first scan image and the second scan image are generated by a single scanner device. In some examples, the first scanned image and the second scanned image may be received at a computing device connected to a network and/or coupled to the first printing device and the second printing device.

At 678, method 670 may align color table test images within the first scan image and the second scan image. As described herein, the color table test image may include a plurality of colors aligned by a gradient of a color table similar to the first printing device and/or the second printing device. In some examples, the color table test image includes a plurality of color patches deposited based on a color table of the first printing device or the second printing device. In this way, multiple color blocks from a first scan image may be aligned for comparison with a corresponding multiple color blocks from a second scan image, and in some examples, a marker may be utilized to align a color table test image within the first scan image with a color table test image within the second scan image.

At 680, method 670 may determine a color difference between the color table test image within the first scan image and the second scan image. As described herein, the color difference may correspond to a color value difference between a color table test image within the first scan image and a color table test image within the second scan image. In some examples, the color difference may be a difference in RGB values between a color table test image within the first scan image and a color table test image within the second scan image.

At 682, the method 670 may generate a simulated color table based on the color differences. In these examples, the simulated color table includes color values to be utilized by a particular printing device when generating an image on a substrate. As described herein, the simulated color table may be a conversion table that may be used by the second computing device to generate colors having RGB values that are closer to the RGB values within the color table test image within the first scan image.

At 684, method 670 may provide the simulated color table to the second printing device to replace the existing color table of the second printing device. As described herein, the simulated color table may be a complete color table that may be used to replace an existing color table used by the second printing device to generate the color table test image. In other examples, the simulated color table may be a conversion table that may be used with existing color tables used by the second printing device.

In some examples, method 670 includes identifying a single color block in the simulated color table, altering a color value of the single color block based on a selected color block within the first scanned image, and altering neighboring color blocks of the single color block within the simulated color table based on the altered color value of the single color block. As described herein, adjacent color blocks may include color blocks that are similar to selected color blocks within a color table. In other examples, adjacent color blocks may be color blocks within a certain number of color blocks from the selected color block. In this way, the gradient or gradient level may be maintained when the selected color is changed to a different color value.

In some examples, method 670 includes generating a color histogram of the region of interest based on fiducial markers within the first and second scanned images. As described herein, the color histogram may analyze the region of interest to identify different colors within the region of interest. In this way, each of the plurality of identified colors within the region of interest may be individually altered to have a more accurate color value corresponding to the color value printed by the first printing device. In a similar manner, adjacent color blocks of the identified color within the region of interest may be altered based on the manner in which the identified color is altered. As described herein, altering adjacent colors of the identified colors may maintain a particular gradient within the area of the identified colors.

In the preceding detailed description of the disclosure, reference has been made to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof, and in which is shown by way of illustration how the disclosure may be practiced. These examples are described in sufficient detail to enable those of ordinary skill in the art to practice the examples of this disclosure, and it is to be understood that other examples may be utilized and that process, electrical, and/or structural changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Further, as used herein, "a" or "an" refers to one such thing or more than one such thing.

The figures herein follow a numbering convention in which the first digit corresponds to the drawing figure number and the remaining digits identify an element or component in the drawing. For example, reference numeral 102 may refer to element 102 in fig. 1, while a similar element may be identified by reference numeral 302 in fig. 3. Elements shown in the various figures herein may be added, exchanged, and/or deleted to provide additional examples of the present disclosure. Furthermore, the proportions and relative proportions of the elements provided in the figures are intended to illustrate examples of the present disclosure, and should not be considered as limiting.

It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being "on," "connected to," or "coupled to" another element, it can be directly on, connected to, or coupled to the other element or intervening elements may be present. In contrast, when an object is "directly coupled to" another element or "directly coupled to" another element, it is understood that there are no intervening elements (adhesives, screws, other elements), etc.

The above specification, examples and data provide a description of the systems and methods of the present disclosure. Since many examples can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosed systems and methods, this specification lists only a few of the many possible example configurations and implementations.

Claims (15)

1. A device comprising: Processor; and a non-transitory memory resource having machine-readable instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause the processor to: aligning a first scanned image of a printout of a first test image with a second scanned image of a printout of a second test image so that colors from the first test image align with corresponding colors from the second test image; determining a difference between a color from the first scanned image and the corresponding color from the second scanned image; identifying a color value for the color from the first test image based on an identifier of a first printing device that generated the printout of the first test image; and The corresponding color in a color table of a second printing device that generates the printout of the second test image is altered based on the difference and the color value for the color from the first test image. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to: instructing a scanner device to perform scanning to generate the first scanned image from the printout of the first test image; and The scanner device is instructed to perform scanning to generate the second scanned image from the printout of the first test image. 3. The device of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to receive a selection of a single color within the first scan of the first test image or the second scan of the second test image, wherein a color value of the single color in a color table of the second printing device is changed independently of the corresponding color. 4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first test image is identical to the second test image. 5. The device of claim 1, wherein the processor is to send the first test image to the first printing device to be printed by the first printing device, and send the second test image to the second printing device to be printed by the second printing device. 6. A non-transitory memory resource having machine-readable instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when executed, causing a processor to: aligning a first scanned image of an image printed by a first printing device with a second scanned image of the image printed by a second printing device; identifying a first color table of the first printing device based on the first scanned image of the image and identifying a second color table of the second printing device based on the second scanned image; identifying a difference in color attributes between the first color table and the second color table; generating a third color table based on the identified differences; and A configuration file is generated using the third color table, a first identifier of the first printing device, and a second identifier of the second printing device. 7. The memory resource of claim 6, wherein the non-transitory memory resource comprises instructions for causing the processor to: receiving an identification of the first printing device from a third printing device; determining that the third printing device includes the second identification of the second printing device; and The configuration file is provided to the third printing device to change an existing color table of the third printing device with the third color table. 8. The memory resource of claim 6, wherein the non-transitory memory resource includes instructions that cause the processor to: Displaying the first scanned image on a display device; and A selection of a region of interest from the first scanned image is received. 9. The memory resource of claim 8, wherein the color blocks in the first color table are selected based on the selected region of interest, the selected region of interest comprising a plurality of colors having corresponding color blocks. 10. The memory resource of claim 9, wherein the non-transitory memory resource includes instructions that cause the processor to generate a color histogram for the region of interest to identify colors within the region of interest corresponding to the color block. 11. A method comprising: identifying a first printing device to be emulated by a second printing device; sending a color chart test image to be printed by the first printing device and the second printing device; receiving a first scanned image of the color table test image printed by the first printing device and a second scanned image of the color table test image printed by the second printing device; aligning the color table test image within the first scanned image and the second scanned image; determining a color difference between the color table test image within the first scanned image and the second scanned image; generating a simulated color table based on the color differences; and The emulation color table is provided to the second printing device to replace an existing color table of the second printing device. 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the simulated color table includes color values used by a particular printing device when printing an image on a substrate. 13. The method of claim 11, wherein the first scan image and the second scan image are generated by a single scanner device. 14. The method of claim 11 further comprising: Identifying a single color block in the simulated color table; modifying a color value of the single color block based on a selected color block within the first scanned image; and Adjacent color blocks of the single color block within the simulated color table are altered based on the altered color value of the single color block. 15. The method of claim 11 further comprising generating a color histogram for a region of interest based on fiducial markers within the first scan image and the second scan image.