Relationship between Paper Whiteness and Color Reproduction in Inkjet Printing

Paper is widely used as a substrate for inkjet printing, where the paper feature heavily impacts the print quality, especially the color reproduction. The unprinted area on paper is visible and applied as a background reflectance for the toner layer. Hence, it is worthwhile to understand the effects of paper whiteness on print color reproduction. In this study, the tested papers were treated with different dyes, which resulted in the change of the paper’s optical properties, but not surface roughness. The print density was impacted by the paper whiteness and ISO brightness. The effect of the paper whiteness on the print density is a stronger linear correlation compared to the ISO brightness. Paper whiteness has a positive correlation with the ISO brightness. The print colorimetric values (lightness and chroma values) increased with increasing paper whiteness up to a certain level, after which the paper whiteness did not have a noticeable impact on its print lightness and chroma values. The print color (a* and b* values) was affected by its corresponding paper color.