1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electrophotographic reproduction methods and apparatus and more specifically to the improved production of copy (including black-and-white and color reproductions) of the kind having both continuous-tone (e.g. pictorial) and other (e.g. uniform background and/or line-type) content.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
As the development and use of electrophotography continues to advance, one continuing goal is to improve the quality of electrophotographic reproductions which contain different types of information content such as continuous-tone content, line-type content and uniform background content. Various problems make attainment of this goal a technical challenge. For example, procedures which tend to optimize reproduction of line-type information (for example alphanumerics, line drawings, graphs, etc.) are not optimal for reproduction of continuous-tone information (for example photographs, paintings, etc). The problems only worsen when it is desired to make such high quality reproductions in automated equipment that is capable of continuous mode operation and good productivity. The accommodation of color information, as well as black-and-white information, poses even further problems.
A wide variety of electrophotographic techniques and equipment approaches have been suggested to meet one or more of the problems outlined above; however, there is considerable desire for further improvement.