Patent ID: 7333208

Claim:
A method of full transverse scanning color analysis of color printed sheets moving in a color printer path with a full width array spectrophotometer, comprising: illuminating at least one substantially linear elongated array of broad band illumination sources extending sufficiently in a substantially linear dimension to transversely substantially span said color printer path to illuminate the printed sheets with a broad band transverse illumination source extending transversely across said color printed sheets moving in said color printer path, detecting reflected light from said illumination source and a corresponding portion of the printed sheets with a full width array of tunable spectrophotometers being positioned to receive light reflected from said transverse illumination source fully across said print media sheet moving in said paper path; selectively filtering the reflected light with a full width array of tunable optical filters associated with photodetectors for generating a detected spectra from the corresponding portion of the printed sheets representative of a color thereof including multiple transmission frequencies corresponding to multiple detected samples for the detecting; and, resolving the detected spectra with a sampling circuit for effecting the color analysis wherein multiple illuminate reflections from the corresponding portion of the printed sheets generate the detected spectra from the broad band illumination sources.