Color reproduction on inkjet printers and paper colorimetric properties

Abstract

The goal of this work is to study the relationship between the colorimetric characteristics that identify a kind of paper and those that allow us to evaluate its color reproduction capabilities on inkjet printers. A set of 29 different commercial papers from several companies has been tested. The category of those papers ranged from photo quality to prepress proof and ordinary office papers, being their finishing matte, semi-matte or glossy. For each sample, we have measured their reflectance, intrinsic reflectance, opacity, CIE whiteness index and tint. All these measurements followed the procedures established in the international standards about paper and board. Then, we have printed on three different sheet of each paper the color chart proposed in the international standard for color printer characterization ANSI IT8/7.3. When calculated the CIELAB coordinates using the D50 standard illuminant, we studied the dynamic range, color gamut and the rendering linearity. The results show that the colorimetric properties and reproduction capabilities of the 29 commercial papers let us cluster them in accordance with their behavior. However, we found no systematic correlation between color reproduction and specific colorimetric properties of the types of paper: we should search for other physical (not just colorimetric) properties (for instance, gloss or ink absorption capacity).