This paper presents some preliminary results from a research collaboration concerning the modeling and control of color xerography. In this first communication of our work, we describe our efforts to develop a model for a monochrome marking engine. We adopt the technique of principal component analysis for choice of output coordinates and demonstrate preliminary experimental evidence suggesting that this procedure yields accuracy in data reconstruction superior to present industry practice. Preliminary analysis of the experimental evidence suggests that the process has a nonlinear component that we seek to model using a mixture of physical and empirical insight.