Method and apparatus for assessing the operation of a color printing system

摘要

A method and apparatus are provided for assessing the operation of a col or printing system (10) by measuring color plane mis-registration. The printing system (10) is caused to print a multi-sheet test job (26) with corresponding test points on each sheet distributed vertically and horizontally over the sheet. The test points comprise test markings for determining horizontal and vertical color plane mis-registration values. These test markings are measured by an imaging subsystem (30) to determine horizontal and vertical color plane mis-registration values (31) for the printing colors. The mis-registration values are then analyzed (33, 36) by a processing subsystem (32) to derive a plurality of mis-registration parameters that provide different respective views of mis-registration behaviour across the test sheets. An output is provided based on the mis-registration parameters.