Print Quality Control Management for Papers Containing Optical Brightening Agents

Abstract

Optical brightening agents (OBAs) or fluorescent whitening agents (FWAs) are chemicals added to paper during the papermaking process to increase the brightness of paper (chemical additives that increase the reflection of blue light (caused by ultraviolet light with a wavelength below 400nm) for the correction of a natural yellow color of paper pulp). Papers with agents for optical brightening are often represented on the market. The aim of this paper is to show that colors reproduced on paper with (Iggesund Incada Silk, 220g/m) and without (Iggesund Incada Silk T, 205g/m) agents for optical brightening, are different during the same printing conditions. Standard ISO 13655 (Spectral Measurement and Colorimetric Computation for Graphic Arts Images) defines the “M” series of illumination, which provides color management in these conditions.