Relationships between ink jet print quality and paper formation and roughness

摘要

Print response is dependent on paper quality. In contact printing processes, such as offset printing, the transfer of ink between the print unit and the substrate is in part governed by the surface characteristics of the sheet. For a non-contact printing process, such as ink-jet printing, the topography of the surface and the formation of the sheet also affect the print quality, but the driving force for this relationship is ink migration within the sheet rather than transfer to the sheet. This paper details an investigation into printing with 5 different inkjet printers across a range of 11 uncoated fine papers of basis weight between 80 and 105 gsm. For each combination of printer and paper, the print quality was characterised using multiple parameters, including colour density and gamut, mottle, grain, dot gain, line width and inter-colour bleed, using a commercial image analysis system. Each paper has also been characterised in terms of formation and surface roughness. The relationships between the print and paper metrics are reported and discussed in this paper. Correlation has been found between some of the individual print parameters, and some dependence of the print result on the paper surface and formation has also been observed. Comparison is made between the correlations found in this work, and research previously reported linking formation and print quality in offset printing [1,2,3].