Patent ID: 6982812

Claim:
A method for calibrating a printing device, comprising the following steps: (a) performing an on-media calibration, including the following substeps: (a.1) placing colorant on print media, (a.2) performing a measurement to obtain on-media calibration measured values of the colorant on the print media, and (a.3) using the on-media calibration measured values to calibrate the printing device; (b) performing an off-media calibration to obtain off-media calibration measured values of the colorant, the off-media calibration being performed without placing the colorant on print media; (c) making a correlation between the on-media calibration measured values of the colorant placed on the print media and the off-media calibration measured values of the colorant placed on the print media; and, (d) performing subsequent off-media calibrations by placing the colorant on other than the print media to obtain additional off-media calibration measured values which are used along with the correlation between the on-media calibration measured values and the off-media calibration measured values to calibrate the printing device.