A
color management method / apparatus generates image
color matching and International Color Consortium (ICC) color printer profiles using a reduced number of color patch measurements. Color printer characterization, and the generation of ICC profiles usually require a large number of measured data points or color patches and complex interpolation techniques. This invention provides an optimization method / apparatus for performing LAB to CMYK
color space conversion,
gamut mapping, and gray component replacement. A
gamut trained
network architecture performs LAB to CMYK
color space conversion to generate a color profile
lookup table for a color printer, or alternatively, to directly control the color printer in accordance with the a plurality of color patches that accurately. represent the
gamut of the color printer. More specifically, a
feed forward neural network is trained using an ANSI / IT-8 basic
data set consisting of 182 data points or color patches, or using a lesser number of data points such as 150 or 101 data points when redundant data points within linear regions of the 182
data point set are removed. A 5-to-7
neuron neural network architecture is preferred to perform the LAB to CMYK
color space conversion as the profile
lookup table is built, or as the printer is directly controlled. For each CMYK
signal, an ink optimization criteria is applied, to thereby control ink parameters such as the total quantity of ink in each CMYK ink printed pixel, and / or to control the total quantity of black ink in each CMYK ink printed pixel.