The present invention concerns measures for the space-optimized determination of printing-related measured values. With the aid of a tone value and/or color gradient in a control patch and a suitable measuring device, it is possible to obtain, in a smaller amount of space, adequate or even detailed information about the printing process. Correcting values necessary for the automatic control of the printing operation can be determined on the basis of the information thus obtained, which can be also be continuously acquired due to the space-optimized tone value and/or color gradients.