Inkjet Print Image Quality Considerations

I just found an interesting paper on inkjet image quality by Torrey Pines Research. According to their website, "TPR is your independent, interdisciplinary, product research and product development consulting company, specializing in digital printing and material deposition technologies. TPR provides the product development solutions you need. TPR understands the critical tradeoffs associated with achieving Product Cost, Product Performance, and Development Schedule. TPR has a proprietary product development process as illustrated below, and TPR can handle the entire product development program or can jump in and assist in any phase."

The paper discusses a concept they call PEARLS which stands for permanence, edge quality, artifacts, resolution/addressability, linear tonescale/color reproduction and solid-area quality. TPR makes the case that these are the most critical points involved in the evaluation and comparison of prints produced by injet printers. It also attempts to establish the interrelationship between each of the PEARLS attributes stating that, "Any one attribute is affected by and dependent upon one or more of the other attributes." Another point made is that the human visual system and the intended viewer must also be considered. It is a very interesting paper and a must read for those interested in fine art printing.

TPR has several other papers available online that may be of interest. Be sure to check them out.

Pete Hellmann Photography