Optical Print Quality of Coated Papers, 1996 International Printing & Graphic Arts Conference Proceedings

Marie-Claude Béland

Institute of Optical Research

Lars Mattsson

Institute of Optical Research

We are investigating how the optical properties of paper and prints relate to print quality. Using angle resolved light scattering, we obtained in-plane light scattering distributions for both image and non-image areas of different printed coated papers. These distributions were used to calculate the contrast between the levels of scattering intensities as a function of incidence angle. As the angle of incidence is increased, the contrast decreases and even becomes negative over a larger and larger interval. The positive scattering contrast range (PSCR) is defined as the interval, in degrees, over which the scattering contrast is positive. PSCR values discriminated the samples in terms of both coating composition and coat weight. Gloss variation measurements correlated well with the full-width-half-maxima of the scattering distributions of the prints. The non-image and image portions of the print have different topographical and therefore different optical properties. This affects the contrast we can see between them. KEYWORDS Light Scattering, Contrast, Scattering Contrast, Coated Paper, Gloss Variation, Print Quality, Optical Properties, Goniophotometer