Patent ID: 8885219

Claim:
A method of characterizing a color rendering performance of a printing apparatus associated with printing of a particular regular print job, the printing apparatus including a UI (User Interface), a controller and a printing device, the method comprising: a) the controller receiving one or more user selectable instructions from the UI to automatically execute a color validation swatch process to modify a workflow associated with the printing apparatus to include one or more color validation swatches in addition to a particular regular print job not including the color validation swatch, wherein each color validation swatch is printed on a separate media sheet along with printed meta data associating the printed color validation swatch with the particular regular print job, and the user selectable instructions provide parameters to configure the execution of the color validation swatch process; b) executing the color validation swatch process wherein the execution of the color validation swatch process includes the one or more color validation swatches and associated meta data printed during the execution of the color validation swatch process, the associated meta data including data associating the one or more color validation swatches with the particular regular print job; c) sequentially compiling the printed color validation swatches and associated meta data; and d) performing one or more of visually inspecting the compiled printed color validation swatches and associated meta data to characterize the color rendering performance of the printing apparatus associated with the printing of the regular print job, storing the compiled printed color validation swatches and associated meta data, and measuring the colorimetric properties associated with the color validation swatches.