Patent ID: 7413276

Claim:
A diagnostic method for visual detection of poor media advance calibration in an ink-jet printing system, comprising: entering a diagnostic mode of the printing system in which mode normal printing jobs of the printing system are not printed; printing different areas of a diagnostic pattern at different passes of one or more ink-jet printheads with a controlled amount of media advances between the passes, to accumulate media advance error between the printing of the different areas; and examining the diagnostic pattern to determine whether the accumulated media advance error is sufficiently objectionable to take corrective action; and wherein said printing different areas comprises: printing a first area comprising a first set of pixels printed during a first pass; conducting a plurality of incremental media advances; printing a further area comprising a second set of pixels printed during a further pass, wherein said different areas are nominally aligned along a horizontal line, and wherein media advance errors resulting from said plurality of media advances are accumulated between printing said first area and printing said further area.