System and method for measuring drop position in an image of a test pattern on an image substrate

A method for evaluating image quality in an image generating system comprising:

• generating a test pattern on an image substrate;
• generating a digital image of the test pattern on the image substrate;
• generating a plurality of differential distance measurements between an ink drop in the digital image that was ejected from a first jet and a plurality of ink drops in the digital image that were ejected from other jets;
• detecting missing jets from the differential distance measurements;
• forming an over-determined matrix of equations with the plurality of differential distance measurements;
• generating a solution of the over-determined matrix by minimizing the root-mean-square (RMS) of residual errors corresponding to the matrix;
• generating a correction parameter with reference to the solution of the over-determined matrix;
• and
• applying the correction parameter to an imaging system component to adjust a position of an ink drop ejected by the first jet.