Color Technology Simplified

Only by understanding how color is perceived by both people

and machines can the new “image reading” technologies of
Voyager be truly appreciated.

Only by understanding how color is created can the new “image

processing” and “image writing” technologies of Voyager be
truly appreciated.

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 Color Technology Simplified

The purpose of this seminar is to first breakdown the science of

light and color into its basic elements. By removing the “science
speak” everyone attending, whether from a technical or sales
background, will have a better understanding of this most
important component of our industries future.

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 Visible Light Understanding Color

Visible light is just a small portion of the spectrum of electromagnetic waves. It is in fact
the same thing as infrared energy and radio waves. The only difference is in the wavelength
or frequency.

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 Visible Light

Wavelengths between 400 and 700 nanometers are generally detectable by the human eye
and are therefore referred to as visible light.

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Wavelengths between 700 and 3000 nanometers are referred to as infrared and are felt as
heat rather than seen as light.

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Ordinary remote controls use infrared light to send commands to electronic devices. This
form of light can be seen through the viewfinder of your cell phone camera as shown here.

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Radio waves are detected by an electromechanical device known as a radio, and converted
to sound.

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 Two characteristics of visible light

Reflection

There are two simple characteristics of visible light that make color imaging possible.
The first is reflection. An incoming ray striking a reflective surface will leave the surface
at exactly the same angle at which it strikes. This is called the law of regular reflection. It
works exactly the same as a bouncing ball. Parallel incoming rays will leave a smooth
surface parallel to each other. However a rough surface will scatter the light creating a
diffuse reflection. It is important to note here that it is the surface that has changed, not the
law.

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 Two characteristics of visible light

Reflection
Refraction

The second characteristic of light that makes color imaging possible is refraction. When
light passes a boundary between transparent materials of different density such as glass and
air it will bend.

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This effect can be seen when a straw is placed in a glass of water.

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 Refraction allows us to use a prism to separate colors of light and therefore is essential in
determining the color of an original by detecting the colors of light it reflects. The higher
the energy or shorter the wavelength the greater this bending effect can be seen. Therefore
blue light bends more than green light and green light more than red.

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The human eye perceives light by using a lens to focus light onto the retina. The retina
contains light detecting cells called rods and cones that detect both light intensity and color.
No two people see color exactly the same way.

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Machines perceive color by using light sensing devices called CCDs or CIS assemblies.
These tiny devices when struck by light, conduct electricity into a storage device called a
capacitor. The more light sensed the more electricity stored in the capacitor. By using tiny
prisms, each pixel (pixel is a contraction of the two words "picture element") can be
checked to see how much red light it reflects, how much green light it reflects, and how
much blue light it reflects. This data can then be checked to determine the color of the pixel.
For example if all three color data readings are high but equal that pixel must be white
because only white reflects all three colors equally. If all three color data readings are equal
but low that pixel must be black because only black completely absorbs all three colors
equally.

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Reading the combinations of colors reflected and absorbed by each pixel makes it easy to
determine its color.

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 Whether detected by a machine or by the human
eye color can be generated in three ways:

Luminous color

Whether detected by a machine or by the human eye color can be generated in three ways.
Luminous color provides its own light source and is only slightly affected by surrounding
light, if at all.

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Examples of luminous color include the red glow of a cigarette, the blue glow of a welder's
torch, or the one affecting us every day, the computer monitor.

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 Whether detected by a machine or by the human
eye color can be generated in three ways:

Luminous color
Reflective color

Reflective color includes the vast majority of color we see every day.

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Since most things do not emit light, they simply reflect or absorb the light striking them.
This type of color includes copies and prints. This type of color depends entirely on the
light source, as it cannot reflect any color of light not being shown onto it.

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 Whether detected by a machine or by the human
eye color can be generated in three ways:

Luminous color
Reflective color
Transmitted color

Transmitted color is color that is projected onto a surface,

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usually white such as a movie screen.

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 The classification of colors is where “science speak”
makes things unnecessarily complicated.

The classification of colors is where "science speak" makes things unnecessarily

complicated.

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 The classification of colors is where “science speak”
makes things unnecessarily complicated.

Hue - Hue is described as" the quality of color which can be described by words such as
red, yellow, and blue. In other words color.

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 The classification of colors is where “science speak”
makes things unnecessarily complicated.

Value - Value is the quality of color, which can be described bywords such as light, dark,
etc., relating the color to a gray of similar lightness.

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 The classification of colors is where “science speak”
makes things unnecessarily complicated.

Chroma/ Saturation - Chroma is the quality of color, which can be described by words such
as vivid, dull, etc., describing the extent to which a color differs from a gray having the
same value.

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 What?????

What?????

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Hue is another word for color.

We actually affect the value of a color simply by adding or subtracting black.

We actually affect the chroma or saturation of a color adding or subtracting

more of the same color.

Hue is another word for color

We actually affect the value of a color simply by adding or subtracting black.
We actually affect the chroma or saturation of a color by adding or subtracting more of the
same color.

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 Additive and subtractive color can be confusing mostly because
of how it is presented.

Additive and subtractive color can be confusing mostly because of how it is presented.

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You must first understand that all the color you will ever see is light entering your eye. For
example when something appears as yellow it is because red and green light in
approximately equal amounts are being detected.

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A monitor starts out black and produces yellow by illuminating red and green dots on the
screen. Since we added red and green light to make yellow this type of color mixing is
known as additive color mixing.

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Since a print or copy starts out white, which is the combination of all colors we use a toner
which absorbs blue light while allowing red and green light to pass through it and reflect
back to your eye. Since we used toner to absorb or subtract blue leaving red and green light
this type of color mixing is referred to as subtractive.

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Toners used in color copiers and printers are very different from printer's inks. Printers use
eleven colors of ink precisely mixed in order to produce industry standard pantone colors.
In this process the inks sit on top of the page and either absorb or reflect various colors of
light. Since the light does not penetrate to the surface of the page the smoothness of the
surface or the brightness of the paper is not as critical to the color reproduction.
As amazing as it seems color toners are transparent to every color of light except the one
they are designed to absorb.

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Cyan toner absorbs red light while blue and green light pass through it to the surface of the
paper, then reflect back to your eye. Blue and green light combined are seen by the human
eye as cyan whether being reflected off of a sheet of paper or being emitted by the blue and
green phosphors of a monitor.

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Magenta toner absorbs green light while red and blue light pass through it to the surface of
the paper, then reflect back to your eye. The human eye sees Red and blue light combined
as magenta, whether reflected off of a sheet of paper or being emitted by the red and blue
phosphors of a monitor.

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 Yellow toner absorbs blue light while red and green light pass through it to the surface of
the paper, then reflect back to your eye. Red and green light combined are seen by the
human eye as yellow, whether reflected off of a sheet of paper or being emitted by the red
and green phosphors of a monitor.

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It is very important to remember that each subtractive color is used to absorb its additive
opposite on the color wheel as shown here.

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 Red Cars
BY
GM

Just remember
Red Cars
BY
GM

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 The opposite of red is cyan
The opposite of blue is yellow
The opposite of green is magenta

The opposite of red is cyan

The opposite of blue is yellow
The opposite of green is magenta

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Understanding this is the absolute key to troubleshooting a color image.
When looking at a blank sheet of paper you are looking at all the red green and blue light
being supplied by the light source and reflected by the sheet of paper. Since this is reflected
color the amount and intensity of available color depends entirely on the light source.

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The colors produced on a monitor are luminous and will appear essentially the same
regardless of the light source in the room.

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For this reason a print will never look exactly like the monitor, at least until we invent
100watt paper. A picture of a lighted bulb will never look exactly like a lighted bulb or we
would tape them to the ceiling and tell the power company to take a hike.

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When looking at a color print if a part of the image appears too red or not red enough it is
cyan that needs to be adjusted. Remember in the subtractive process cyan is used to subtract
red light. If part of the image is too red then more cyan development is needed. If the
image is not red enough then less cyan development is needed.
When looking at a color print if a part of the image appears too green or not green enough it
is magenta that needs to be adjusted. Remember in the subtractive process magenta toner is
used to subtract green light. If part of the image is too green then more magenta
development is needed. If part of the image is not green enough then less magenta
development is needed.
When looking at a color print if a part of the image appears too blue or not blue enough it
is yellow that needs to be adjusted. Remember in the subtractive process yellow toner is
used to subtract blue light. If part of the image is too blue then more yellow development is
needed. If part of the image is not blue enough then less yellow development is needed.

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 Red Cars
BY
GM

Remember Red Cars BY GM. Red-cyan/ blue-yellow/ green-magenta

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And keep in mind that a copy or print cannot reflect a color or intensity of color not
contained in the light source used for viewing it.
Also keep in mind that no white can be whiter or color brighter than the paper it is copied
or printed on. The surface of the paper should be smooth also to avoid the scattering the
light reflecting off of its surface.

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Why not use red green and blue toners?

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The three additive primary colors red green and blue absorb two colors of light while
reflecting only one. This means that if we stack either color dot on top of the other all three
colors of light are now absorbed and
we have a black dot. This is why a monitor can only display red green and blue dots much
the same as newspapers when printing color pictures. This limits the number of colors that
can be produced and reduces image resolution to an unacceptable level.

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The three subtractive primary colors, cyan magenta and yellow absorb only one color while
transmitting two. This allows us to stack these colors on top of each other producing dots of
many colors providing higher image resolution and a wider gamut of colors on the printed
page.

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 LAB is based on the Opponent-Colors Theory,
which assumes that the receptors in the human eye perceive
color as the following pairs of opposites:

Light-dark
Red-green
Yellow-blue

The L value of each scale therefore indicates the level of light or

dark, the a value redness or greenness, and the b value
yellowness or blueness. All three values are required to
completely describe an object’s color.

What is the L.A.B. color model?

The L.A.B. color model evaluates color the same way the human eye sees color. The
human eye sees colors as opposites. The eye uses two sensing devices, rods and cones. The
rods detect light and dark only. These work in low light and are the reason why we don't
see colors at night. This "luminance" detection is the L. value in the L.A.B. color model.
The cones see red and green as opposites. This is the A. value in the L.A.B. color model.
The cones see blue and yellow as opposites, {remember yellow is actually red and green
light combined}. This is the B. value in the L.A.B. color model.

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Three-dimensional representation of L, a, b color.

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 Color Technology Simplified

New Technology In The Voyager System

KM-C2520/3225/3232

By using a precisely manufactured L.A.B. color chart to calibrate, a wider and more
accurate color gamut can be reproduced when copying on the voyager system. In fact the
gamut closely matches that of the printer.
Kyocera now offers a plug-in called the "Color Optimizer". This allows the user to select a
color on their monitor, and then print out a "swatch" of colors selected from the entire range
of either R, G, B, C, M, or Y. They can then select the one most closely matching that on
the monitor. Now we can finally offer a solution to the complaint "The color on the print
doesn't match the monitor".
Image reading has been the area of color copying most in need of improvement. This is how
Kyocera engineers have done it. The area separation process has been redesigned to greatly
increase the accuracy of copied and scanned data.

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 By improving the area separation process, accurate reproduction
of copies and scans of originals can be achieved.

Area separation is the process color systems use to determine if the image being read is text,
photo, or printed image. The following is an example of how text would be detected.

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As you can see if the image data readings go from black to gray to white in one raster line
of image data this is most likely the edge of a letter and would be processed in text mode
using edge enhancement to sharply define the text.

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On the other hand if the data readings change only slightly from one pixel to the next this
part of the image would be identified as photo and be processed using a smoothing process
as illustrated here. As you can imagine the application of the correct image processing will
have a huge impact on the reproduced image.

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 Scanner

Image Process

Compression
Memory
Decompression
Deteriorate
Image

HDD
Area Separation

Image Process

Engine

When data is scanned with typical color MFPs, the image data is analyzed by the Image
processing unit then compressed for memory storage. It is then decompressed and sent to
area separation before image processing instructs image writing how to write the image. In
this system it is this decompressed data that is used for area separation. Inevitably there
will be some data loss incurred by this compression- decompression process. This will lead
to mistakes in the area separation process that follows.

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 Scanner Scanner

Image Process Image Process

Compression
Memory Area Separation
Decompression
Deteriorate
Image

Compression
HDD Memory
Decompression
Area Separation

Image Process Image Process

HDD

Engine Engine

The technology of the voyager system overcomes this by doing area separation immediately
after the image is read, before image compression-decompression. This greatly reduces data
loss during this process while reducing file size. This combined with an improved area
separation ratio leads to a much more accurate scanned image. This means that even while
making copies that include text, graphics, and photos mixed in one original, the text section
can be more emphasized and sharpened, the photo section can be smoother with richer
gradations.

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 Before After

In addition to this, a new filter is employed which virtually eliminates image moiré as seen
in this example.

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Improved image writing is achieved by using laser beam position control or "dot position
control" as shown in this example. This improves line sharpness even on diagonal lines.
Where more subtle gradation changes are required laser beam output is varied for precise
"dot density control".

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A more precise color-matching table is employed to achieve accurate color matching. This
allows copied colors to more closely match printed colors.
SIMULTANEOUS gradation correction allows the user to print and scan a color correction
original that corrects the gradation for both copier and printer functions at the same time.
This means the difference between the print and copy color output will be reduced
considerably.

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 Image mode can be selected when scanning. By selecting this mode 4 additional modes
can be selected, (text/text photo/photo/OCR).

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When selecting Text + Photo mode the area separation process works the same as when
copying.

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When selecting photo mode scan density can be selected in seven different levels.

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7 levels of sharpness can be selected so that when scanning photo images, the setting can be
adjusted to sharpen or soften the image to the users preference.

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Development is improved by using a hybrid developing system that realizes the advantages
of both dual and single component development systems. To give the toner a higher charge
potential the dual component system is used up to the developer roller. Then only a thin
layer of toner is transferred to the developing roller eliminating the brush marks normally
associated with dual component developing. This produces super thin lines with no breaks.

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A state of the art cooling system, using materials such as clad metal that dissipates heat very
quickly, combined with a flexible tube airflow distribution system providing fresh air to all
four developing units, insures long term copy quality stability. This system not only
eliminates the problems caused by heat buildup but reduces dusting inside the machine as
well.
In a system that writes the image in lines so thin that it takes 11 just to equal the thickness
of a sheet of paper, stability is very important. The steel frame of this machine is laser
welded to eliminate color misalignment and vibration induced jitter in the copied or printed
image.

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Using the vertical conveying short paper path system has reduced the potential for paper
jamming. If the machine does misfeed paper jam removal is very simple. This also allows
for a faster first copy time of only 5.9 seconds for B&W or 7.9 seconds for color.
Using three belt sensors instead of two allows color registration and color calibration to be
performed simultaneously. Both printer and copier adjustments are done together for a
maximum of 40 seconds allowing for a warm up time of less than 100 seconds, one of the
fastest in the industry.
The voyager adopts a system that locks the operation for all three color developer units
when outputting black and white images. This technology greatly reduces color toner
consumption. Even when outputting color and black and white pages in the same job, the
three color units will only be used for color without any reduction in machine speed.
Multi access has been improved and multi-tasking capabilities strengthened. With a
memory capacity of 786MB and SDRAM memory replaced with DDR-SDRAM, which is
twice as fast, it is possible to process multiple jobs simultaneously.
A new belt fixing system is employed allowing more precise temperature control and a very
fast warm up of only 45 seconds. Precise fusing is the final step in producing state of the art
color images.

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 Color Technology Simplified
The Voyager System
KM-C2520/3225/3232
State of the Art Technology
Network Ready
Small Footprint / 32 cpm
45 second Warm-Up
7.9 second First Copy Speed
300,000 Copy PM Cycle
DESIGNED, BUILT, AND BACKED BY
KYOCERA MITA

In summary the Voyager is state of the art color technology. With the support of Kyocera's
sales and service network this will surely be the most successful color product in the
companies history.

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