Patent ID: 7090324

Claim:
A method for compensating for streak defects in an image formed using an image forming device that forms the image on a receiving material that is translated through the image forming device along a process direction, comprising: printing a compensation pattern usable to determine a difference in gray level between an actual gray level value and an intended gray level value at a number of cross-process-direction image-forming device pixel locations in the image, comprising: printing a plurality of gray level portions, each gray level portion extending along the cross-process direction and having an intended gray level that is different from that of the other gray level portions, the plurality of gray level portions arranged along the process direction, printing a plurality of rows of first marks, each row of first marks extending along the cross-process direction, wherein, for each cross-process-direction pixel location of the compensation pattern along the cross-process direction, there is a first mark in at least one of the rows of first marks that is aligned with that cross-process-direction pixel location, printing a first plurality of rows of fiducial marks, at least one pair of fiducial marks in each row being separated by a whitespace, each row of fiducial marks comprising a number of the fiducial marks that are spaced at a given interval along the cross-process direction, and printing a second plurality of rows of fiducial marks, at least one pair of fiducial marks in each row being separated by a whitespace, each row of fiducial marks comprising a number of the fiducial marks that are spaced at a given interval along the cross-process direction, the plurality of gray level portions being between the first and second plurality of rows of fiducial marks; scanning the printed compensation pattern to generate a set of scanned image data, the scanned image data defining an image value for each of a plurality of scanned image cross-process-direction pixel locations for at least one of the gray level portions and at least one of at least one row of first marks and at least one row of fiducial marks; analyzing the scanned image data to determine at least one of a width for at least one first mark and at least one actual gray level value for at least one of the plurality of gray level portions for at least one cross-process-direction image-forming device pixel location based on a position in the scanned image pixel location of at least one fiducial in the scanned image data; and generating, for each analyzed cross-process-direction image-forming device pixel location, for each analyzed gray level portion of that analyzed cross-process-direction image-forming device pixel location, at least one compensation parameter based on the determined actual gray level value and the intended gray level value for that analyzed gray level portion for that analyzed cross-process-direction image-forming device pixel location.