Abstract:
A method of printing regular photographic prints on a strip of paper along with index prints--that is, prints with images that are smaller than those in the regular prints--from series of negatives on rolls of film. The smaller images are projected next to and one after another along the strip to produce an index print as wide as the strip. The regular prints and the index prints are printed at different points along the strip. The results of area-by-area measurements of the negatives obtained while the regular prints are being printed are exploited to control light quantities while the index prints are being printed. The distance the strip of paper advances from one printing point to the other is regulated to ensure that paper is advanced to the index print printing point once the last negative in a series has been projected onto the strip until the trailing edge of the last print arrives at the margin of the exposure area in the index print printing point. Further printing procedures are discontinued at the regular print printing point until the trailing end of a length of paper that is reserved for the index print associated with that series of negatives, and that must accordingly not be exposed to light, has crossed the edge of the exposure opening near the index print printing point.
Abstract:
A filmstrip containing a series of images is conveyed along a path which passes by a copying station and a scanning station. The filmstrip is advanced in steps using transporting rolls and a narrow segment of the filmstrip is scanned at the scanning station after every step. A first set of measurements obtained upon scanning of the filmstrip is used to calculate the amounts of light and the exposure times required to properly reproduce the images. A second set of measurements is used to detect characteristic regions of the filmstrip having abrupt changes in density. The positions of the characteristic regions along the filmstrip are established by a counter which counts the steps undergone by the filmstrip and the measurement or measurements corresponding to each characteristic region are stored together with the respective position. The positions of the characteristic regions and the second set of measurements are used to calculate the positions of the images along the filmstrip. After the filmstrip has been completely scanned, the filmstrip is conveyed along the path once more. During the second trip along the path, the filmstrip is scanned again while the distance traveled by the filmstrip is measured by the counter. Upon detection of a characteristic region, the position of such region along the filmstrip as measured by the counter during the second trip is compared with the stored position obtained during the first trip. If the positions are different, the counter is changed to match the stored position. This compensates for slip between the filmstrip and the transporting rolls thereby allowing the images to be accurately positioned in the copying station for reproduction as the filmstrip travels along the path for the second time.
Abstract:
An exposed and developed filmstrip has a longitudinally extending row of image areas and a row of perforations along each longitudinal margin. The image areas and perforations have no fixed positional relationship. The filmstrip is conveyed lengthwise from a scanning station to an operating station. A procedure involving the filmstrip is performed at the operating station when an image area is present at such station. To establish the arrival of an image area at the operating station, the filmstrip is photoelectrically scanned at the scanning station to locate the leading edge of the image area. The leading edge is conveyed from a preselected location, which may or may not be the scanning station, to the oeprating station along a path of fixed length. The length of the path is expressed in terms of the spacing between neighboring perforations of a row and the arrival of the leading edge at the operating station is established by counting perforations as the filmstrip travels. Fractions of the perforation spacing, which may arise if the leading edge is located between two perforations or if the path length is not an integral multiple of the perforation spacing, are measured by counting the steps performed by a stepping motor which drives the filmstrip or by counting the revolutions of rollers which engage the filmstrip.
Abstract:
Successive frames of an exposed and developed customer film are monitored during transport of the film in a first direction, and the information which is gathered during monitoring of discrete frames as well as of the entire film is stored in the memory of a microprocessor. The direction of travel of the film is then reversed and successive or selected frames of the film are copied during intervals between successive stepwise advances of the film in the second direction. Copying light which is used for the making of reproductions of images of the film frames is also used for illumination of film frames during monitoring. A mirror is provided to reflect light to the monitoring unit during travel of the film in the first direction, and such mirror is retracted preparatory to copying which starts with the last monitored frame and proceeds toward the first monitored frame of the film. The film is converted into a growing roll during monitoring of its frames.
Abstract:
Light containing blue, green and red radiation is passed through a colored original which is to be printed on color copy material. The transmitted light is spread out into a color spectrum which extends across a first wavelength range generally corresponding to the blue portion of the spectrum, a second wavelength range generally corresponding to the green portion of the spectrum and a third wavelength range generally corresponding to the red portion of the spectrum. The intensity of the transmitted light is measured throughout the spectrum and average of the resulting raw intensities are taken oer each of a series of wavelength intervals which are much shorter than the first, second and third ranges. The copy material has a gamma value for each wavelength interval and such gamma value represents the spectral sensitivity of the copy material in the corresponding interval. The average intensity for each wavelength interval is multiplied by the respective gamma value to yield a corrected intensity. The corrected intensities for each wavelength range are summed to generate first, second and third sums corresponding to the first, second and third ranges and respectively representing the blue, green and red densities of the original. The first, second and third sums are used to calculate the respective amounts of blue, green and red light required to print the original with a neutral gray density.
Abstract:
A strip of exposed and developed color film is transported through a transparency measuring system. The transparency of each frame of the film strip in the three primary colors is measured at a multiplicity of regions. The transparency values are converted to density values which are processed to generate a set of data characteristic of the film strip and indicative of the color compositions of the scanned regions. The characteristic set of data and the density values for the individual regions are used to determine whether or not a respective region contains a color dominant. For each frame, the amounts of copying light in the primary colors are established from the density values of those regions which are free of color dominants and have a neutral gray color composition. The amount of copying light in each of the three primary colors is calculated so that the regions of the original having a neutral gray color composition are copied neutral gray. In order to ensure that the copying material registers the copying light in the same manner as the measuring system registers the transparency measuring light, the measuring light is filtered so as to match the spectral sensitivity of the measuring system in each primary color to the spectral sensitivity of the copying material in the same color.
Abstract:
A series of exposed and developed film strips having various lengths are spliced end-to-end for copying. The resulting band passes through a density measuring station in which the densities of the negatives are measured in the three primary colors and next through a magazine of variable capacity in which a portion of the band accumulates before entering a negative copying station including an exposure control device which regulates the exposures of the negatives on the measured basis of the density values. To insure that values derived from a selected strip are transferred to the exposure control unit when the strip enters the copying station, the splice immediately downstream of the selected strip is arrested in the density measuring station. The band continues to be drawn through the copying station so that the portion which has accumulated in the magazine is fully withdrawn. The portion of the band between the arrested splice and a splice sensor in the copying station has a known length. The arrested junction is now released and a length measuring device begins to measure the length of the portion travelling through the copying station. If the sensor detects a splice when the measured length equals the known length, this splice is the previously arrested splice.
Abstract:
A method of copying a colored original involves measuring the transparency of localized regions of the original in each of the three primary colors. Three localized transparency ratios for each region are formed from the transparency values for the different colors. Three corresponding average transparency ratios for the original as a whole are computed from the localized transparency ratios. Each average transparency ratio is compared with a statistical average of similar ratios obtained from a large number of average originals. If an average transparency ratio of the original to be copied deviates from the corresponding statistical average by more than a predetermined amount, the number of each of the localized transparency ratios lying inside and outside of a predetermined range about the corresponding average transparency ratio of the original is counted. When the number outside of a predetermined range exceeds the number inside, a color dominant is assumed to be present in the original. Otherwise, a color tinge is assumed to be present. The original is copied using a correction factor which depends upon whether a color dominant or a color tinge is present. An alternative method summing the differences between the localized transparency ratios and the respective average transparency ratios of the original is also presented.
Abstract:
A negative whose printability is to be automatically ascertained is subdivided into a central zone, a foreground zone, and a background zone. Whole-zone density signals are produced for the foreground and background zones, and the central zone is scanned to generate a maximum-density signal indicating the density of the maximum-density point within the central zone. The negative is rejected for being underexposed when both of two conditions are met: first, the larger of the foreground and background whole-zone density signals fails to exceed a first limit value; and second, the difference between the central-zone maximum-density signal, on the one hand, and the smaller of the foregound and background whole-zone density signals, on the other hand, fails to exceed a second limit value. The negative is rejected as overexposed when the average of the foreground and background whole-zone density signals fails to exceed a third limit value, irrespective of the density of the central zone. The negative is rejected as containing a meaningless motif, e.g., an adhesive sticker applied to the negative, when the central-zone maximum-density signal exceeds a fourth limit value, the density corresponding to the fourth limit value being higher than the density corresponding to the third limit value.
Abstract:
Successive frames of a web of photographic color film are subjected to objective examination during transport through an automatic evaluating circuit which may constitute a discrete prereader or a prereader which is integrated into a copying machine upstream of the copying station. The prereader furnishes signals which represent color and/or density correction data for reproduction of those film frames which can be properly copied only with a setting of exposure controls which deviates from the average setting for copying of the majority of film frames. The objective examination of all film frames is followed by a subjective examination which is performed by an attendant who inspects at least some of those film frames whose examination by the prereader resulted in the generation of correction signals. The attendant inspects the film frames at the copying station or at a second station which is located immediately downstream of a discrete prereader, and the attendant simultaneously observes the corresponding correction signals which are furnished by the evaluating circuit and are displayed close to the copying station or in register with film frames at the second station. The attendant can approve, modify or cancel the correction signals, and can also initiate the generation of additional signals, e.g., to identify those film frames which are unfit for copying.