Patent ID: 9283792
Filing Date: 2016-03-15
CPC Classification: B41J

Claim Text:
1. A method for determining smear tendency of a media sheet in an image forming apparatus, comprising: creating an image pattern on the media sheet; waiting for a time period to elapse to allow the image pattern to partially dry on the media sheet; smearing portions of the image pattern once the time period has elapsed in which the image pattern is still wet on the media sheet to create smear marks on the media sheet; printing reference marks over the smear marks and at unsmeared areas on the media sheet; and comparing the reference marks over the smear marks and the reference marks at the unsmeared areas to determine a value corresponding to the smear tendency of the media sheet, the smear tendency indicating future corrections to the image forming apparatus when printing on future media sheets of a similar type as the media sheet to reduce smearing on the future media sheets.