1. A method for generating a tone reproduction curve for a target marking device equipped with a multi-center cluster halftone screen having a similar tiling geometry and halftone dot growth as a corresponding single-center cluster halftone screen, the method comprising: printing a patch for each of a total N levels using a corresponding single-center cluster halftone screen with a target color marking device; measuring color values for each of said printed patches; defining a cluster-based printer model for said target marking device which establishes a relationship between a color output of said single-center cluster halftone screen and a color output of a multi-center cluster halftone screen of said target marking device, said cluster-based printer model comprising: X = ∑ i N ⁢ n i ⁢ X i / ∑ i N ⁢ n i , where N is a total number of different types of clusters, n i is a number of occurrences of an i th type of cluster, X is a calculated color value for said multi-center cluster halftone screen X i is said measured color value being any of: a spectral reflectance, CIE XYZ, and a CIE ΔE of an i th cluster of said single-center cluster halftone screen; calculating color values for said multi-center cluster halftone screen using said cluster-based printer model and said measured color values; producing a tone reproduction curve from said calculated color values; and characterizing said target color marking device using said produced tone reproduction curve.