Polaroid Corporation

Michael J Vigneau

Jay E Thornton

Bror O Hultgren, Iii

A system and method for calibrating a printer includes the steps or functions of: printing a predetermined color test pattern with the printer by transforming data, representing said predetermined color test pattern, from a device-independent color space to a device-dependent color space associated with the printer by use of a color transform, said predetermined color test pattern including a set of color patches with one of said color patches representing a preferred mid-gray hue; providing a predetermined reference gray surface; comparing said reference gray surface to said set of colored patches of the printed test pattern to find a closest matching one of said patches, if the closest matching one of said patches is the patch representing the preferred mid-gray hue, then ending the method; otherwise determining, for each color channel of the printer, a solution set of correction values as a function of believed gray versus actual gray, said solution set derived from and including a white point, a black point and a point mapped at {G.sub.b, G.sub.a } where G.sub.b is the believed gray value of the closest matching one of said patches and G.sub.a is the actual gray value of the closest matching one of said patches; and adding to the color transform the corresponding solution set for each color channel of the printer.

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Stoneham, MA, United States of America

Michael J Vigneau