Digital printing control using a spectrophotometer

Abstract

What is disclosed is a novel system and method for xerographic Dmax control based upon measurements made on the printed paper using an inline spectrophotometer (ILS) or similar device. The disclosed method is based upon directly measuring the color to actuator sensitivity. Each of the separations is controlled independently using an actuator specific to that color separation. The present method is effective at controlling the color of the solid primaries. The fact that the vector of change is highly correlated with solid color variation seen in the field suggests that the teachings hereof effectively increase the solid color stability. Increased solid color stability increases the color stability throughout the printer gamut and the stability of the gamut boundaries, which increases the robustness of gamut mapping algorithms. Advantageously, the present method can be combined with existing ILS-based maintenance architectures.