Use of colour for image segmentation in the graphic arts

It has been shown that colour selective masking can be a powerful technique for constructing masks for segmenting images in graphic arts applications. Perceptual colour coordinates allow a more effective specification of regions of colour space than printing ink densities. The colour selective methods can be provided along with other conventional feature extraction methods as graphical `tools´ in a user interface `toolkit´, so that the operator can choose the tool or combination of tools most appropriate for the job. The binary mask can be extended to an 8-bit `soft mask´ for image blending and brushing operations