Patent ID: 8456706

Claim:
A method of characterizing printer streaks, the method comprising: (a) printing a test image onto a printable media according to an input characterization data set using a printing system; (b) measuring the test image to generate a characterization data set representing measurements of intensity or color values observed from the test image; and (c) generating a density profile using the characterization data set, the density profile representing intensity or color value variation of the test image in a cross-process direction transverse to a process direction of the printing system; (d) using a processor, determining a descriptor parameter set for a streak template that best approximates the density profile using a basis selection algorithm, the descriptor parameter set including: a location parameter along the cross-process direction, a width parameter along the cross-process direction, and an intensity parameter at the location; (e) updating the density profile according to the streak template and the descriptor parameter set; where updating the density profile according to the streak template and the descriptor parameter set comprises subtracting the streak template described using the descriptor parameter set from the current density profile; (f) repeating steps (d) and (e) to determine at least a further descriptor parameter set and to further update the density profile; and (g) generating a printer streak characterization according to the streak template and the descriptor parameter sets.