Modeling ink diffusion within paper to achieve a raggedness ruler for print quality control

Abstract

Raggedness is one of the most important print quality factors. It is defined as the appearance of geometric distortion of an edge from its ideal position that should be absolutely straight along the length of the line. Raggedness is caused by several phenomena. The non-uniformity absorption of ink, which may be because of the paper roughness or ink quality, may cause various degree of raggedness. Print quality assessments are usually based on comparing a test sample with a reference as a ruler of different quality samples. Therefore, it is important to prepare appropriate rulers for different quality metrics. The present study introduces a new method for modeling of raggedness by simulating ink diffusion within paper. It is assumed that different parts of a paper have different diffusion coefficients, so the ink can randomly diffuse through different paths. These paths can be changed via paper properties and drying time. Using this method and controlling the effective variables it is expected to generate different levels of raggedness. The experimental results show that with the proposed method it is possible to achieve different levels of raggedness, which can be used to generate test targets and raggedness rulers. Also, it can standardize objective and subjective test methods for measuring raggedness.