Color printing control system and method

A method for automatically adjusting the performing of setups of internal values and for controlling the color balance and the color density in making color prints from color negatives independent of the characteristics of the printing paper being exposed which comprises the steps of:

• (a) reading the light transmitted by each color negative;
• (b) transmitting light through each color negative and providing differing color print times in accordance with print time signals;
• (c) reading a normal reference print and prints made using the initial internal values and producing respective signals each related to the color densities;
• and
• (d) a system for comparing the signals from a normal reference print with the signals from prints actually made by the system using initial internal values to determine correction factors for adjusting internal values and dynamically replacing the initial internal values with the adjusted internal values, and
• (e) repeating steps a-d using the adjusted internal values.

A method for automatically performing setups of internal values and for automatically self-correcting print time versus density slopes while self-correcting the control of color balance in making color prints from color negatives which comprises the steps of:

• (a) transmitting light through each reference color negative;
• (b) reading the light transmitted by each reference color negative and providing color print times in accordance with print time signals;
• (c) online reading by light sensing means of a reference print and producing a first set of signals related to the density of the reference print and separate online readings of prints made from normal, underexposed and overexposed reference negatives, each reference negative having corresponding internal values of print time signals and density slopes;
• (d) storing the first set of signals related to the density of the reference print;
• (e) producing a plurality of second sets of signals, each second set related to the respective color densities of each of the prints made from the normal, underexposed and overexposed reference negatives;
• (f) comparing the first set with the second set of each of the reference negatives;
• (g) automatically adjusting the print times and density slopes of the normal, underexposed and overexposed reference negatives in response to the comparisons substantially concurrently.