Patent ID: 8683922

Claim:
A method of controlling the ink feed to a printed substrate in a lithographic printing press, comprising: providing, for each of a plurality of ink zones of a printing unit, an ink coverage requirement for the printing unit of the lithographic printing press; color scanning a portion of a printed substrate printed by a first ink zone of the plurality of ink zones of the printing unit as it exits the printing unit of the lithographic printing press; and providing a flow setting for each one of the plurality of ink zones based on said scanning of the portion of the printed substrate printed by the first ink zone of the plurality of ink zones and the ink coverage requirement for said each one of the plurality of ink zones, wherein portions of the printed substrate printed by the remaining ink zones of the plurality of ink zones other than the first ink zone are not color scanned, and wherein the flow settings for the remaining ink zones are based on said scanning of the portion of the printed substrate printed by the first ink zone and the ink coverage requirement for said each one of the plurality of ink zones.