Patent ID: 7277196

Claim:
A method for printer control and color balancing, the method comprising: defining combinations of colorants wherein the combinations of colorants will be used to print images; defining a desired response for the defined combinations; determining an approximate set of CMY values to approximate the desired response; printing predefined CMY patches using the approximate set of CMY values; performing an iterative correction integration procedure comprising: measuring the printed patches; determining three measurement CIE L*a*b* values of the measured printed patches; determining differences between the desired response and the measured CIE L*a*b* values; amplifying each difference by a respective predetermined gain; integrating the amplified differences by adding the amplified differences to a sum of previously amplified differences; adding the sum of amplified differences to the approximate set of CMY values forming a set of corrected CMY values; printing predefined CMY patches using the corrected set of CMY values; and repeating the correction integration procedure until the determined differences are within a predetermined range of the desired response, and wherein the corrected set of CMY values forms mappings of the respective CMY values, defining a one-dimensional transformation curve for each of the CMY channels; interpolating, extrapolating and smoothing the transformation curves to obtain a desired response along a neutral axis; determining K curves corresponding to a fixed set of CMY values; printing patches corresponding to incremental values of K for the fixed set of CMY values; measuring CIE L*a*b* values of the patches corresponding to incremental values of K; calculating adjusted K curves using input K values and the measured L* values; and calculating a screening threshold-level array for each CMYK channel and all possible input CMYK values.