A method and apparatus are disclosed for calibrating a digital printer to provide a substantially aim printer response. A test target is processed through a set of potential calibration functions to form a set of processed test targets and the set of processed test targets is printed using the digital printer. Thereafter, the set of printed test targets is measured to determine the printer response. An error criterion is determined for each measured test target by comparing the measured printer response for each of the set of potential calibration functions to the aim printer response. The calibration function which has the smallest value of the error criterion is then selected.