Adaptive printing

A method for printing an image on a receiver medium, the method comprising the steps of:

• receiving digital image data representing an image to be printed;
• using a print engine to print an image on the receiver medium based upon the digital image data and initial printing settings;
• capturing a press sheet image of the image printed on the receiver medium;
• automatically comparing the press sheet image to the digital image data to detect differences between the appearance of the image represented by the digital image data and the appearance of the press sheet image;
• identifying differences that reflect at least one of the presence of an image artifact introduced by the process used to capture the press sheet image, any detected difference introduced by the way in which a properly operating print engine converts digital image data into a printed image on a reference receiver medium or any detected difference introduced by a difference in the way in which a particular type of receiver medium responds to printing by the print engine and the way in which the reference receiver medium reacts to the same printing by the print engine;
• and
• generating an output signal based upon the detected differences and the identified differences.

A system for printing images on a receiver medium comprising:

• a print engine to print an image on the receiver medium based upon digital image data, said printing being performed in accordance with initial printing settings;
• an image capture system adapted to capture a digital image of the receiver medium after an image has been printed thereon, and to generate captured image data reflecting the appearance of the image on the receiver medium;
• a processor adapted to cause the print engine to print the image on the receiver medium, to cause the image capture system to capture an image of the press sheet, and to convert captured image data into a virtual press sheet image by adapting captured image data to remove any artifacts introduced by the image capture system;
• a source of a virtual proof, said virtual proof being formed by adapting the digital image data to reflect known characteristics of the way in which the print engine converts digital image data into images to be formed on a receiver medium and by further adapting the digital image data to reflect known characteristics of a receiver medium upon which a press sheet is to be printed using the digital image data;
• and
• a comparator adapted to compare the appearance of the virtual press sheet image and the appearance of the virtual proof image to detect differences therebetween.