(v13) ContoneMask (page device)

This page applies to Harlequin v13.1r0 and later; both Harlequin Core and Harlequin MultiRIP

ContoneMask provides an efficient way to distinguish between pixels that have been marked with a zero tone value and pixels that have not been marked at all in contone output, such as when using external Harlequin VariData (eHVD).

It defaults to 0 , in which case the output raster is generated as normal.

If a positive value of ContoneMask is set, then any pixel that would normally be painted with a tone value lower than the value of ContoneMask (after all other color conversions including calibration) is painted with ContoneMask . Thus, in the usual case with eHVD, ContoneMask may be set to 1 . Any post-RIP recomposition code can then treat a tone value of 0 in the raster as representing a transparent pixel, and any other value as being marked (and therefore opaque).

For debugging purposes, a higher value may be set in order to see the effects more obviously.

A negative value of ContoneMask is allowed and indicates ContoneMask remapping may be activated automatically by the RIP if it detects remapping is necessary (for example, when HVD is being applied to the current set of pages). In this case the RIP will remap zero color values to the value of ContoneMask , and otherwise remapping will remain inactive and equivalent to specifying a ContoneMask of zero.

ContoneMask applies to all contone output modes. The supplied ContoneMask must be in the range [ -(bpp-1) bpp-1 ] or a rangecheck error will be given.

Note: Anti-aliasing (ResamplingFactor ) is not compatible with ContoneMask . Default: 0