A method and system for rendering a correlation mark, can involve determining a combined path of a foreground comprising a first layer based on a first correlation pattern and a background comprising a second layer based on a second correlation pattern. The size of the second layer of the second layer can be calculated based on a trade off between how well the second layer hides a correlation effect and a readability of the second layer. The combined path can be filled with variable data at the size of the second layer at a selected color or a third correlation pattern to produce a two-layer correlation mark having a variable data hiding layer for rendering on or through a recording medium.