Measurement as Information Channel with an Application to Printability

Printability of paper is a multidimensional concept consisting of runnability and print quality. The lack of definition for print quality makes printability rather ambiguous. In this paper we discuss the measurability of the high-level printability and print quality and present an interpretation of the measurements of low-level print quality related characteristics as information channels about highlevel concepts. This enables the construction of a layered model in which the information provided by measurements is propagated to infer about higher level concepts of quality, eventually supporting decision making. As an example, we present a case study of low-level print quality defects caused by the small-scale measurable properties of the paper, and consider the meaning of this process from the viewpoint of print quality analysis.