Capturing designer intent in reticle inspection

A method of inspecting a reticle for defining a circuit layer pattern. First, the circuit layer pattern is analyzed to obtain a circuit characterization, and then, an area of the reticle is categorized into a first region and a second region based on the circuit characterization. A test reticle image of the reticle and a baseline representation containing an expected pattern of the test reticle image are provided. The first region of the test reticle image is compared to the first region of the baseline representation by a first analysis, and the second region of the test reticle image is compared to the second region of the baseline representation by a second analysis. The first analysis differs from the second analysis and this difference is based on difference in the circuit characterization of the first and second regions.