Patent ID: 8573725

Claim:
A system for evaluating printhead positions in an ink printing system comprising: a first printhead having a last ink ejector and a second printhead having a first ink ejector, the first and second printheads positioned adjacent to one another in a cross-process direction and configured to eject ink drops onto an image receiving surface, where ejected ink drops from the last ink ejector of the first printhead form a first ink dash having a first color and ejected ink drops from the first ejector of the second printhead form a second ink dash having a second color; and a controller operatively coupled to at least the first printhead and the second printhead, the controller configured to: operate the first printhead to form the first dash on the image receiving surface; operate the second printhead to form the second dash on the image receiving surface at a process direction position corresponding to a process direction position of the first dash; receive color image data of an area of the image receiving surface on which the first dash and the second dash were formed; identify a color density of a secondary color in the color image data, the secondary color corresponding to a color produced by the first dash and the second dash formed on the image receiving member; and identify an offset distance between the first and the second printheads by identifying a difference between the identified color density of the secondary color and a color density for a secondary color formed by a dash of the first color and a dash of the second color being separated by a predetermined offset distance.