Xerox Research Allows Web Visitors to View Richer, More Colorful Images; Technology Used to Enhance Online Archive of William Blake's Work.

Business Editors

ROCHESTER, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 4, 2002

William Blake, 19th century poet, painter and engraver, saw the world in a grain of sand. Today, scholars accessing the William Blake Archive (WBA) Web site are exploring Blake's universe pixel by pixel with the help of Xerox Corporation (NYSE: XRX) researchers.

"Our collaboration with the William Blake Archives is just one example of the work we're doing to support the interactive access and viewing of documents on the Web," said Robert R. Buckley, a researcher with the Xerox Solutions and Services Technology Center in Webster, N.Y. "We are helping to define a technology that has obvious commercial applications. But it also has the potential to make much of the world's printed heritage available over the Web."

Xerox is a leader in bringing together several technologies that allow users to view and interact with compound documents on the Web. Compound documents contain a mixed bag of content and images such as text, pictures and continuous tones. The technologies that Xerox's Buckley is employing include the Mixed Raster Content (MRC) and the new JPEG 2000 compression standard within the JPM (JPEG 2000 multilayer) file format.

Buckley described the technology in a paper - "Document Imaging on the Web with MRC and JPEG 2000" - presented this week at the Electronic Imaging & Visual Arts (EVA) Conference, held at Harvard University. The paper includes a description of how WBA researchers are using the technology to create compressed images of Blake's famous colored engravings.

"Most document images on the Web today are compound documents combining pictures, graphics, line art or text," Buckley explained. "Each type has its own quality requirements. By combining MRC and JPEG 2000 in the JPM format, we can compress compound images and retain the quality of both text and pictures. We use the MRC multilayer imaging model separate the various types of content into layers and then apply the JPEG 2000 compression to the color content. Together these technologies make viewing compound documents on the Web a far more satisfying experience."

The MRC and JPEG 2000 combination allows the viewer to choose the level of detail desired, from low-resolution thumbnails to extremely high-resolution compound images. "This is an interactive process," said Buckley. "With the right software, you can request the level of resolution that is appropriate to the task and tools at hand. This could range from a close analysis of a complex Blake engraving to reading a corporate document that contains text, pictures and charts."

Blake scholars accessing the images available at the WBA are using the technology to model the process the artist used to create his intaglio prints with their hand-painted colored layers. The technology's decomposition process allows them to simulate lifting the impression's color overlay and recreating the underlying copperplate image. The WBA - at www.blakearchive.org/ - makes available, without charge, fully searchable and scalable electronic editions of all of Blake's 19 illuminated works. This includes Blake's longest work, Jerusalem, with its 100 engraved and hand-colored plates.

The International Standards Organization (ISO) is expected to adopt the new imaging technology specification as a standard later this year.

Xerox Corporation, one of the world's top technology innovators, spent about $1 billion on research and development in 2001. It operates research and technology centers in the United States, Canada and Europe that conduct work in color science, computing, digital imaging, work practices, novel materials, and other disciplines related to Xerox's expertise in printing and document management.

NOTE TO EDITORS: Copies of the paper are available upon request. For more information about Xerox, visit www.xerox.com/news. XEROX(R), The Document Company(R)and the digital X(R)are trademarks of XEROX CORPORATION.