A dot-overlap compensation scheme for Feature-preserving Multiscale Error Diffusion

Feature-preserving Multiscale Error Diffusion (FMED) algorithm is a digital halftoning method to convert a gray scale image into a binary image. This technique is superior to conventional MED methods in a way that it can preserve more image features and provide an output halftone image of good blue noise characteristics. In practice, a printer is not able to produce square ink dots and hence dots may overlap with each other and cover the gird area of neighboring pixels. This dot-overlap effect darkens an image when it is printed. In this paper, a dot compensation scheme is proposed to work with FMED. It compensates for the dot-overlap effect introduced by a printer. Features can be preserved and there is no biasing in the emulated gray scale of the printed image.