Appeal No. 96-2281
Application No. 08/061,225
The appellants' invention relates to an image forming
apparatus and method in which masking coefficients are
determined
according to the gradation curve that has been selected.
Claim 7 is illustrative of the claimed invention, and it reads
as follows:
7. A digital color image forming apparatus comprising:
a manual input panel for manually inputting a
desired gradation curve;
a masking processor which multiplies an image signal
with a masking coefficient determined according to the
gradation curve inputted with said manual input panel to send
the image signal for a print color;
a conversion circuit which converts the image signal
to print data in correspondence with light quantity data
according to the gradation curve inputted by said manual input
panel; and
a printer which prints the image by exposing a
photoconductor based on said print data.
The prior art references of record relied upon by the
examiner in rejecting the appealed claims are:
Asada 5,018,008 May 21, 1991
Hirota 5,345,320 Sep. 06, 1994
(filed Nov. 26, 1991)
Claims 1 through 9 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103
as being unpatentable over Asada and Hirota.
Reference is made to the Final Rejection (Paper No. 10,
mailed November 17, 1994) and the Examiner's Answer (Paper No.
2
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