Chinese Ink Blurring on Paper and a Proposal of the Evaluation Based on Klemm Method

Abstract

Three perspectives were devised to characterize Chinese ink blurring, namely the ink absorption, the unevenness of the outlines at the blurring heads, and the difference of the tones at the blurring heads. Laboratory handsheets from softwood kraft pulp, having various basis weights, were prepared with or without wet pressing. They were soaked in Chinese ink for various times as the Klemm method. After drying, they were scanned by an image scanner set at 800 dpi to prepared bit-mapped images. These images were changed to binary images. Using the obtained images, various blurring indices based on the three perspectives were introduced. The blurring indices based on the ink absorption, the adsorbed ink amount and the capillary rise, for the handsheets without wet pressing were larger than those for the handsheets with wet pressing. Other blurring indices showed few differences between these papers with or without wet pressing. Thus, the three perspectives have different character in blots evaluation.