1. A model-based, halftone independent method for characterizing a high-addressability printer equipped with a plurality of halftone screens, comprising: printing a target set of basic patches, said target set including patches having at least two resolutions and comprised of a fundamental binary pattern independent of a halftone screen; measuring printer response from the target set; modeling a halftone independent characterization of the printer with a mathematical transformation using the measured response; modeling a first halftone dependent characterization of the printer with the mathematical transformation to generate a first predicted result using a halftone screen; comparing a measured response of the printer using this halftone screen with the predicted result to define a correction factor corresponding to the halftone screen; and modeling a second halftone dependent characterization of the printer using a predicted response of the fundamental binary pattern and the correction factor.