Patent ID: 8817330

Claim:
A method for adjusting the quality of a pantograph having a foreground pixel pattern used to form a pantograph message and a background pixel pattern within which the pantograph message is located, for a specific printer, before printing of the pantograph message and background pixel pattern on a substrate that contains image information using the specific printer, the steps of the method comprising: selecting a base pixel pattern having a predetermined pixel density, wherein pixel density is measured as the ratio of colored pixels to total pixels in a given pixel pattern; providing a plurality of background pixel patterns, each background pixel pattern having a different pixel density and being on a pixel grid of similar dimensions, wherein at least one of the background pixel patterns is formed by removing at least one pixel from the base pixel pattern, the at least one pixel being selected based on a predetermined matrix; and selecting a background pixel pattern from the plurality of background pixel patterns that provides the best quality pantograph for the specific printer, whereby the pantograph message and selected background pixel pattern printed by the specific printer visually obscures the pantograph message in the printed background pixel pattern on the printed substrate, and clearly displays the pantograph message in an electrophotographic copy of the printed substrate.