Patent ID: 7209600

Claim:
A method for detecting synchronization of all image planes that make up a completed form for a print job on a printer, the printer capable of printing on a print media with an associated print engines, the print job including a plurality of forms, each form having a form origin and each form containing a plurality of image planes, where the image planes that constitute an image are referred to as a composite image, and wherein each composite image can vary from form to form, the method comprising the steps of: applying at least one image plane coordination mark to each of the plurality of image planes that comprise the composite image on each form, the at least one image plane coordination mark for each image plane resulting in a plurality of image coordination marks, each of the plurality of image coordination marks being located at defined positions relative to the image plane coordination marks for the other image planes of the corresponding image in the composite image; forming a composite image group mark with the plurality of image coordination marks, the composite image group mark including an origin defined as a leading edge of a first of the plurality of image plane coordination marks being offset a known distance, definable as an offset distance, from the form origin; changing the offset distance from the form origin for each composite image group mark associated with subsequent forms such that an image plane synchronization error will cause relative placement of at least one of the plurality of image plane coordination marks to deviate from its defined placement relative to any other of the plurality of image plane coordination marks; detecting that the plurality of image coordination marks of the composite image group mark of at least one form are in a proper spatial relationship relative to each other by detecting the absence of an image plane coordination mark from the composite image group mark on the at least one form or by detecting the presence of an image plane coordination mark from the composite image group mark from another form on the at least one form; and identifying proper synchronization if all of the plurality of image coordination marks associated with the form are in a proper spatial relationship to each other, or identifying a synchronization error if at least one of the plurality of image coordination marks associated with the form is not in proper spatial relationship with the other image coordination marks associated with the form.