The present invention relates to the segmentation of an image into a main area and a image segment for variable data differential gloss image control. A single color is selected. Two or more different color definitions are created by combining the selected single color with two or more halftones having anisotropic structure characteristics which are significantly different in orientation to each other while remaining identical in density. By alternatively assigning the color definitions to the image segment in accord with the variable data content, a variable data differential gloss image may be superimposed within an image having reduced data processing and storage requirements.