The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 14, 2000
Filed:
May. 29, 1997
Jack Louis Zable, Niwot, CO (US);
William Chesley Decker, Longmont, CO (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for controlling the density of the printed medium of a printer is provided and comprises the following steps. First a control strip is printed on the print medium having at least two coverage patches having a first and second different standard density. Next, the optical density of each of the patches are measured. Next a first and second tolerance limit is determined for the first and second patch, respectively. The next step is to determine whether the measured optical density of the first patch is within a first tolerance of the first standard density. If the first measured optical density is not within tolerance of the first standard density, then a change of at least one printer parameter is calculated such that the first density is corrected within the first tolerance. Then the effect of the change of the printer parameters on the second optical density is determined. If the second optical density with the effect is not within the second tolerance, then a change of at least one other printer parameter is calculated so that the second optical density with the effect is within the second tolerance, while the first optical density is still within its tolerance. Next, new printer parameter settings are calculated from the printer parameter changes. Last, the printer parameters are automatically adjusted to the new settings.