Prediction of the texture visibility of color halftone patterns

We propose a metric to predict the visibility of color halftone textures. This metric is represented by the critical viewing distance below which the halftone textures can be discriminated. It is intended to be used in the evaluation of the texture visibility of uniform color halftone patterns, which plays an important role in halftone design and optimization. The metric utilizes the visual threshold versus intensity function and contrast sensitivity functions for luminance and chrominance. To verify the metric, the texture visibility was determined experimentally using a psychovisual experiment. The critical viewing distances determined by the experiment and those predicted by the metric were compared, and a good correlation was achieved. The results have shown that the metric is capable of predicting the visibility over a wide range of texture characteristics. © 2002 SPIE and IS&T. [DOI: 10.1117/1.1455010]