The construction and the application of the Pseudo-Blue Noise Mask

Abstract

The Blue Noise Mask (BNM)is a halftone screen that produces unstructured, visually pleasing halftone images. However, in the construction of the original BNM, a number of constraints were used to limit its characteristics in the spatial and frequency domains. These constraints were not efficient to provide the required adaptability to all gray levels in the screening process. In this paper, we provide a new algorithm to obtain the Pseudo Blue Noise Mask (PBNM) designed by using prime numbers and filtering techniques to reject the unwanted residual low-frequency components. The halftones by PBNM and the usual error diffusion method are compared. According to the psychovisual test, the PBNM gives the result comparable with that of error diffusion technique.