1. A method of grouping image quality anomalies of an image, the method comprising: a) printing a test image onto a printable media according to an input characterization data set using a printing system; (b) measuring the test image to generate a characterization data set representing measurements of intensity or color values observed from the test image; (c) generating a density profile using the characterization data set, the density profile representing intensity or color value variation of the test image in a cross-process direction transverse to a process direction of the printing system; (d) operating a processor to determine a descriptor parameter set for a streak template that approximates the density profile using a basis selection algorithm, the descriptor parameter set including: a location parameter, I, in the cross-process direction, a width parameter, w, in the cross-process direction, and an intensity parameter, h, at the location; (e) updating the density profile according to the streak template and the descriptor parameter set; (f) generating a printer streak characterization according to the streak template and the descriptor parameter sets; (g) based on the printer streak characterization, selecting a region of the image to be analyzed, the region defining an absolute cut-off distance within which a streak must be located to be a part of a grouping; (h) selecting a streak within the region against which all streaks will be compared; and (i) analyzing all remaining streaks within the region using a transitive closure operation, such that streaks that meet the following criteria for determining similarity can be grouped, the criteria consisting of: 1) location of a streak within a predefined relative distance of the streak selected in step (h); and 2) similarity of the streak from step (i)(1) as compared to the streak selected in step (h) based on the descriptor parameter set determined in step (d); wherein the streaks are then grouped according to the following rule: 
 | I 1 −I 2 |≦min ( aw 1 ), wherein (aw 1 ) is the cut-off distance 
 |log h 1 /h 2 |≦β 
 |log w 1 /w 2 |≦β.