Radiative transfer analysis of the effect of ink dot area on color phase in inkjet printing

- Radiative transfer on the surface of an object printed by an inkjet printer is modeled.
- Spectral reflectance of the printed samples are measured and calculated.
- The hue changes with dot area rate because of the broad range of the spectral absorption coefficients of inks.

This study discusses a mechanism of inkjet printing and investigates the effect of ink contrast on the color phase of the printed object. Inkjet printing is a popular printing method for home use, but its color repeatability is occasionally broken. To verify this problem, we calculated the radiative transfer equation on the surface of an object printed by an inkjet printer, and the color was quantitatively estimated. The ink dot area and spectral reflectance of the printed samples were measured. Furthermore, the spectral reflectance of the objects printed with different dot areas were theoretically calculated. By comparing the measured and calculated reflectance, we estimated the scattering coefficient of the paper and absorption coefficient of the ink. We quantitatively calculated the color with the HSV color system. The hue changed with dot area rate. It is considered that this is caused by the broad range of the spectral absorption coefficients of inks. We believe that this study will aid the development of ink without color change and improve the color repeatability of inkjet printers.