Patent ID: 8120816

Claim:
An automated image-quality diagnostic system in a printing system comprising: a printing engine configured to intake electronic image input and to output tangible image output based on said electronic image input; an image-based measurement system configured to make measurements of image parameters associated with said tangible image output; an automated compensation system configured to: (a) store nominal value parametric measurements for one or more image parameters measured by said image-based measurement system, (b) compare said nominal value measurements to related one or more parameters measured to determine one or more anomalies in said output tangible image system, and (c) provide a feedback signal, based on the comparison, to the printing engine to alter gray levels of said electronic image input into said printing engine, prior to printing, which are used to correct said determined anomalies in a subsequent tangible image output from said printing engine; and an automated diagnostic system configured to diagnose the tangible image output of the altered input image of said electronic image input and to predict a cause of the one or more anomalies in the printing system which are not corrected by altering gray levels of said electronic image input into said printing engine, wherein the diagnostic system is activated by a feedforward signal from the automated compensation system if a spatial variation of the tangible image output of the altered gray levels of said electronic image input that correspond to the one or more anomalies is greater than a predetermined threshold activation signal.