Defects in an image forming system may give rise to visible streaks, or one-dimensional defects in an image that run parallel to the process direction. One known method for compensating for streaks introduces a separate tone reproduction curve for each pixel column in the process direction. A compensation pattern according to this invention has a plurality of halftone regions that are lead by, trained by, and separated by rows of fiducial marks. The fiducial marks allow the printer pixel grid and a scanning pixel grid to be correlated. The gray level in each pixel column of each gray level portion is measured and analyzed to produce a local tone reproduction curve for each pixel column and associated line width. The local tone reproduction curves are then used to compensate for the streak defect when printing.