GB2298541A

GB2298541A - Method of producing a colouring-in medium

Info

Publication number: GB2298541A
Application number: GB9501829A
Authority: GB
Inventors: John Leslie Shrimpton
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1995-01-31
Filing date: 1995-01-31
Publication date: 1996-09-04
Anticipated expiration: 2015-01-31
Also published as: GB9501829D0; GB2298541B

Abstract

A colouring-in medium is prepared by loading data representing an image into a computer, the image data having been obtained by scanning an image such as a photograph or retrieving the data from a storage medium such as a CD-ROM, and then processing the image data to designate visually areas which are to be coloured-in, in the style of painting-by-numbers, and printing the processed image.

Description

"METHOD OF PRODUCING A COLOURING-IN MEDIUM" This invention relates to a method of producing colouring-in media having printed images which can be coloured-in by a user.

Conventional colouring-in media consist of sheets of images, typically made into book format, i.e. so-called colouring-books. The images are formed of regions delineated by single lines on an otherwise blank colouringin area. The user colours each region in a single colour and different regions may be coloured in different colours to produce a coloured picture. Another example of such a colouring-in medium is a "painting-by-numbers" picture.

A prior method of producing colouring-in media requires an artist either to create an original line drawing or to draw the outlines of regions of an existing picture. This process suffers from the drawback that the image tends to be simplistic and to lack subtlety so that results tend not to be particularly satisfying.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved method of producing a colouring-in medium and the colouring-in medium produced thereby.

According to the present invention there is provided a method of producing a colouring-in medium, the method including the steps of: loading data representing an image into a computer; processing electronically the image data in a manner to designate visually regions to be coloured-in manually; and printing the processed image in monochrome or colour.

The image data may have been obtained by scanning an image and may be loaded into the computer from a CD-ROM.

In the printed image, areas which are intended to be coloured-in differently may be indicated by different greyscale tones; instead or as well, the borders of areas to be coloured-in may be indicated by lines or other boundaryrepresenting effects.

Electronic processing of the image enables the degree of difficulty of the colouring-in to be varied easily, e.g.

by selectively simplifying regions of intricate detail in the original.

The method preferably includes reducing the colour saturation of, or eliminating colour from, at least selected regions of the scanned image.

The invention also advantageously provides a method for producing a colouring-in medium in which electronic processing is used to identify boundaries between regions of the image; the processed image may consist of lines corresponding to these boundaries either with or without detail removed from within the regions, and with or without hue variation of the boundary lines.

The invention provides a method of using a colouringin medium produced by this method, in which the image of which data is loaded into the computer is preferably in colour, and which includes the step of manually colouringin regions of the printed image.

According to a further aspect of the invention, there is provided a colouring-in medium produced by the method of the invention.

The colouring-in medium may be provided with an indication, such as a colouring key to assist a user in colouring the image. The key may have samples of the colours and/or written indication of the colours for different regions of the image.

In addition to the image to be coloured-in, the colouring-in medium may also advantageously include a printed colour example of the image before any or all of the electronic processing has been performed. This example image may be a smaller colour version of the original image or the partially or fully processed image, but in colour, to enable a user colouring-in the image to include colour graduation in the regions, rather than simply colouring each region with a constant hue and saturation. This way of indicating the colour may be more appropriate to a more accomplished user who might for example be seeking to produce an "interpretation" of the image rather than a naive reproduction of it.

It will be appreciated that the more accomplished user is free to modify the grey-scaling of the coloured-in image - by for example darkening shadows and lightening highlights.

Another aspect of the invention provides a colouring in set, preferably with colouring materials that do not make opaque marks on the colouring-in medium, so that printed detail on the underlying image show through and enable the concepts of shading, texture, highlighting, translucency, motion and so forth to be conveyed.

The invention will be further described by way of nonlimitative example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 shows a flow chart of a method of producing a colouring-in medium; Figs. 2(a) and 2(b) show diagrammatic examples of a colouring-in medium; Fig. 3 shows an example of a colouring-in medium.

Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 illustrates a flow chart for a method of producing a colouring-in medium.

Pixel data representing an image are loaded into a computer. The image pixel data may have been retrieved from a storage medium such as a CD-ROM and may have been generated by scanning an original colour image such as a photograph using a colour or monochrome image scanner or by frame-grabbing a television, video or cine image.

The image pixel data are processed electronically by an operator using image processing software running on the computer. There are a number of software packages on the market suitable for carrying out the image processing. The processing may involve identifying boundaries between different regions of the image, for example by locating abrupt changes in hue, in colour saturation or in darkness.

The colour and picture information may be removed from the interior of the regions leaving coloured edges along the boundaries. The processing may as well or instead involve removing any variation in hue from parts of the image. The parts then have constant hue, (otherwise referred to as "constant tone" or as being in monochrome); an example of this in which there is no hue is a grey-scale image.

The resulting processed image is used to prepare the colouring-in medium, either by direct printing e.g. using a laser printer in monochrome or colour, or by printing in monochrome or colour using any suitable printing method including ones which require the production of intermediate printing plates e.g. lithographic plates. The sheets on which the images to be coloured-in are produced should be selected to have suitable take-up characteristics for a chosen type of colouring-in medium (e.g. crayon, pastel, paints, blendable or water-soluble pencils, felt-tip pens, etc). Printing in colour is appropriate e.g. where colour has been retained in selected parts of the processed image such as the background.

A diagrammatic example of a colouring-in medium according to the first example of image processing above is shown in Fig. 2(a). An image 8 on a sheet 9 has regions 10, 11, 12 separated by coloured strips 13, 14, 15 along the boundaries between the regions. The different hatchings in Fig. 2(a) represent different colours.

A diagrammatic example of a colouring-in medium produced by the second example of image processing above is shown in Fig. 2(b). An image 8 on a sheet 9 has regions 10, 11, 12. The dotted lines indicate solely the boundaries between different regions in this diagram and would not necessarily be visible per se in an actual example of a colouring-in medium according to this invention. The different hatchings in Fig. 2(b) represent different shades of grey. A key 16 to accompany the colouring-in medium may be provided which indicates a colour corresponding to each grey region. The colour may be indicated in writing and/or by a patch of the colour. As noted above, this key could be replaced by, or supplemented by a version of the original coloured image 17 (usually reduced in size). The key, with or without the colour version of the image, may be printed on the same sheet as the image to be coloured-in, including on the reverse side of the sheet, or may be provided on a separate sheet or article accompanying the image to be coloured-in.

In a colouring set according to the invention colours of the key 16 correspond to different colours of colouring materials provided in the set. The colouring-in medium may include a reduced size printed example of the original image in colour to assist the user.

An example of a colouring-in medium according to the invention is shown in Fig. 3. In this case the image processing on the subject of the picture has removed all hue information and converted different darknesses in the original image to different shades of grey.

Claims

1. A method of producing a colouring-in medium, the method including the steps of: loading data representing an image into a computer; processing electronically the image data in a manner to designate visually regions to be coloured-in manually; and printing the processed image in monochrome or colour.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the data is obtained by scanning an image.

3. A method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the electronic processing includes simplifying the image.

4. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the image data loaded into the computer represents a colour image and the processing step includes reducing the colour saturation of, or eliminating colour from, at least selected areas of the image.

5. A method according to claim 4, wherein the electronic processing includes converting image regions of different hues or colour saturations of the image into visually distinguishable different monochrome tones of the same hue.

6. A method according to claims 4 or 5, wherein the electronic processing includes identifying boundaries between different regions of the image and includes making at least one of the regions monochrome, and printing the image with those regions having coloured edges along said boundaries.

7. A method according to claims 4, 5 or 6, wherein the electronic processing includes identifying boundaries between different regions of the image and removing colour and detail from at least one region, and printing the image with those regions having coloured edges along said boundaries.

8. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the electronic processing includes converting different ranges of darkness of the image into different monochrome tones of the same hue.

9. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the electronic processing includes identifying boundaries between different regions of the image, and includes converting the region within a boundary to a single monochrome tone.

10. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the electronic processing includes identifying boundaries between different regions of the image and printing lines corresponding to the boundaries.

11. A method according to claim 9, wherein the electronic processing further includes removing detail from the image except the lines corresponding to the boundaries between regions.

12. A method of using a colouring-in medium produced according to the method of any one of claims 1 to 11, and including the step of manually colouring-in regions of the printed processed image.

13. A colouring-in medium produced according to the method of any one of claims 1 to 11, consisting of at least one image having regions for colouring-in by a user of the medium.

14. A colouring-in medium according to claim 13, wherein the colouring-in medium is a single sheet.

15. A colouring-in book comprising a plurality of colouring media according to claim 14.

16. A colouring-in medium according to claim 13, 14 or 15 including a key indicating a colour corresponding to each region.

17. A colouring-in medium according to claim 16, wherein each colour in the key is indicated by a printed sample of that colour.

18. A colouring-in medium according to claim 16 or 17, wherein each colour in the key is indicated by at least one word and/or at least one numeral.

19. A colouring-in medium according to any one of claims 13 to 18, further comprising a printed version of the image before any or all of the electronic processing steps have been performed.

20. A colouring-in medium according to claim 19, wherein the printed version of the image before any or all of the electronic processing steps have been performed is smaller than the processed image for colouring-in.

21. A colouring-in set comprising: a colouring-in medium according to any one of claims 13 to 20; and colouring materials for colouring different regions of the image different colours.

22. A colouring-in set according to claim 21, wherein the colouring materials do not make opaque marks on the colouring-in medium.

23. A method of producing a colouring-in medium substantially as described herein with reference to Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings.

24. A colouring-in medium substantially as described herein with reference to Figures 2 and 3 of the accompanying drawings.