of a printed test image at step s 1 this test image is scanned at s 2 in order to obtain a data set which reproduces the entire image information in a process independent or device independent representation at step s 3 the method according to the invention essentially begins with the provision of a process independent data set in step s 13 the manner in which this data is obtained is unimportant in the conventional method it could be obtained by scanning a test image as indicated by steps s 11 and s 12 shown in boxes formed by broken lines but this test image does not have to be printed it could also be a manually produced unique set it would also be conceivable to produce the process independent data set exclusively by cad methods on a computer conventionally the process independent data is converted in a step s 4 into a cmyb representation for the standard printing process in order to convert the data set provided at step s 5 into a data set suitable for the real printing process a transformation step s 6 is necessary because this transformation presumptively is not known during a first pass step s 6 is omitted one could also speak of the standard cmyb data set being subjected to a unit transformation and in step s 7 printing is performed in accordance with this data set a comparison performed in step s 8 between the printed result and the test image mentioned with reference to step s 1 supplies information as.