Automatic Image Enhancement (AIE) |
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The AIE algorithms resulted from the need to improve high resolution images that are downsized to the product DPI, emphasizing camera chip artifacts (grain, noise, error pixels) and undesired color desaturation in the printed product. As of Publisher version 3.5, the product designer can overcome these side effects to a certain extent by turning on AIE in the Products.xml. AIE is very time consuming (up to 30 secs per image), so we recommend that you test your settings with all products and on all printers that you use. You may not need AIE at all. An alternative is to display a button in the user interface, where the user can pick the photos himself, where he wants to apply this enhancement. See PRODUCTS.XML for a description of the AIE tags. Aspects of AIE
If turned on, AIE is performed shortly before the product is uploaded, i.e. when the PDF pages are generated. The user cannot interact with this, as the enhancements are so subtle and only affect the downsized images, that he would not be able to see the changes on his computer screen. In fact, AIE can be considered an automatic non-linear color profiling, which mainly affects those images that would have negative downsizing side effects. From our test with different printers, we have come up with two good AIE value sets. We recommend set #1, but again, this is dependent on your own printing machine. Values range from 0..255, so low values imply a subtle effect. Set #1: SmartFlash 20, SmartFix 60, NoiseReduction 150 Set #2: SmartFlash 20, AutoExposure 50, AutoColor 50, Saturation 20, NoiseReduction 150
Here’s the corresponding section of the Products.xml: <AIE> <SmartFlash enabled="1">20</SmartFlash> <SmartFixColorHistoStretch enabled="1">60</SmartFixColorHistoStretch> <SmartFixSaturation enabled="1">60</SmartFixSaturation> <SmartFixShadowHighlights enabled="1">60</SmartFixShadowHighlights> <AutoExposure enabled="1">50</AutoExposure> <AutoColor enabled="1">50</AutoColor> <Gamma enabled="0">0</Gamma> <Saturation enabled="0">20</Saturation> <NoiseReduction enabled="1" threshold="600">150</NoiseReduction> </AIE>
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