An approach to predict print density using scanner and regression models

Optical density measurements are critical for process control and quality assurance during print production. Use of scanners and cameras for color correction and colorimetric measurements have been reported earlier in literature. This paper presents a procedure for using a scanner as a densitometer. Density of printed patches were calculated using the pixel intensity values obtained from scanning a test target. Optical density was measured simultaneously from a densitometer and also computed from the L* measurements for the same patches. Four regression algorithms were used for modeling the behavior of the scanner using these two models. The models were tested and validated. The accuracy and performance of these models were compared. Results convey that the scanner can indeed be used for taking densitometric measurements obtained from the L*, under the presented method.