Joseph Janiak


A common problem in the printing industry today is optical dot gain. Optical dot gain is popularly thought to be caused by light scatter in paper 1. Another name for the scattering of light in a paper substrate is the Yule - Nielsen effect. The Yule-Nielsen effect is described in the following equation: R(1/n) = Fo Ri (1/n) + ( 1 - Fo) Rp (1/n) ( 1 ) This research involves studying the n factor of this equation. This factor is an index of the amount of optical dot gain and is highly correlated with the scattering coefficient of the paper. The n factor is already known to be wavelength dependent. The purpose of my research is to find out what causes n to be wavelength dependent. The factors considered were the color of ink, the opacity of the ink, the halftone dot pattern, and the degree of penetration into the paper. After completing my research I found that the relationship between n and wavelength was very similar to the absorbance spectra of

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