Method of measuring printer characteristics

An apparatus for measuring print accuracy of a print mechanism of a printer, the apparatus comprising:

• means for printing a chart on a print medium using said print mechanism, said chart comprising:
• at least a first and a second region printed using first and second sets of nozzles respectively, said first and second sets of nozzles being a predetermined distance apart;
• and
• at least a third region printed using said first set of nozzles, wherein the printing of said first and second regions, and the printing of said third region, are separated by a print medium advance operation, and each region comprising a spread spectrum pattern;
• means for imaging said chart to form a chart image;
• means for determining the positions of said regions appearing in said chart image;
• and
• means for calculating the accuracy of the print mechanism of the printer using said predetermined distance, the distance in the direction of said print medium advance operation between said first and second regions, and the distance in the direction of said print medium advance operation between said first and third regions.

A computer readable storage medium, having a program recorded thereon, where the program is configured to make a computer execute a procedure of measuring print accuracy of a print mechanism of a printer, the program comprising:

• code for printing a chart on a print medium using said print mechanism, said chart comprising:
• at least a first and a second region printed using first and second sets of nozzles respectively, said first and second sets of nozzles being a predetermined distance apart;
• and
• at least a third region printed using said first set of nozzles, wherein the printing of said first and second regions, and the printing of said third region, are separated by a print medium advance operation, and each region comprising a spread spectrum pattern;
• code for imaging said chart to form a chart image;
• code for determining the positions of said regions appearing in said chart image;
• and
• code for calculating the accuracy of the print mechanism of the printer using said predetermined distance, the distance in the direction of said print medium advance operation between said first and second regions, and the distance in the direction of said print medium advance operation between said first and third regions.