Evaluation of digital halftone image by vector error diffusion

The vector error diffusion (VED) method is applied to produce the digital halftone images by an electrophotographic (EP) printer with 600 dpi. Objective image quality (color reproduction and noise characteristics) of those obtained images is evaluated and analyzed. As a result, in the color reproduction of halftone image by the VED method, it was clear that there are large color difference between target color and printed color typically in the mid-tone colors. We consider it is due to the printer properties including dot-gain. it was also clear that the color noise of the VED method is larger compared with that of the conventional scalar error diffusion(SED) method in some patches. It was remarkable that ununiform patterns are generated by the VED method.