Patent ID: 9044960
Filing Date: 2015-06-02
Classification: B41J,G06K

Abstract:
1. A method for operating an inkjet printer comprising: operating a plurality of inkjets with a plurality of firing signals generated by a controller to eject ink drops of a first color into a margin portion and an ink image portion of a document zone on an image receiving surface to impose a control pattern in both the ink image portion and the margin portion of the document zone on the image receiving surface and to eject ink drops into the image portion of the document zone on the image receiving surface to form an ink image in the ink image portion only of the document zone on the image receiving surface with reference to electronic image data, a density of the control pattern in both the ink image portion and the margin portion of the document zone on the image receiving surface being configured to change at a rate that is at or less than a predetermined threshold to render the control pattern in both the ink image and the margin portions of the document zone imperceptible to a human observer; generating with an optical sensor scanned image data of a portion of the control pattern on the image receiving surface; and identifying with the controller referencing the generated scanned image data received from the optical sensor a performance parameter corresponding to an inkjet in the plurality of inkjets or a printhead including at least one inkjet in the plurality of inkjets.