Analysis of Inkjet Paper Print Quality: Filling the “Quality Gap”

Abstract

The print performance of four commercial inkjet papers was documented on thermal and piezo inkjet printers. Papers tested were an uncoated bond, a surface-sized paper, and two matte coated sheets, one with a kaolin-based coating and the other with a silica-based coating. Color density was evaluated with a hand-held densitometer, and dots and lines were analyzed with an imageXpert® scanner-based system.In general, the results showed kaolin- and silica-based coating formulations had comparable color density and line and dot quality. Both were better than bond and surface treated papers. The silica-based and kaolin-based formulations also worked well with the aqueous inks used in thermal printers. With the solvent-based inks used in piezo printers, a partially hydrolyzed binder in the kaolin-based coating, (as opposed to a fully hydrolyzed binder) gave optimum printability. This formulation gave high-quality results in both thermal and piezo print platforms.A value analysis of the papers in the study using the line and dot data showed that bond and surface-sized paper were lowest in price and performance, and the kaolin-based coating produced print results close to those of the silicabased pigment but at a much lower cost.