A system is disclosed. The system includes at least one physical memory device to store compensation logic and one or more processors coupled with the at least one physical memory device to execute the compensation logic to generate first ink deposition function representing a first output ink amount versus input digital count for each of a plurality of color planes without pel forming element artifacts, generate second ink deposition function representing a second output ink amount versus input digital count for each of the plurality of color planes with the pel forming element artifacts and generate compensated halftones for each of the plurality of color planes based on the first ink deposition function and the second ink deposition function.