Ed #5 Enhancing Color

Six-color presses—and six-color printing—offer designers and printers new options. But no matter how many colors you use, the paper you choose will have an enormous impact on the way the printed colors look.

As we said earlier, printing “works” by bouncing light off the paper through the colored films of transparent inks to produce the colors seen by the eye. So the brighter the surface, the brighter the color, and the whiter the surface, the wider the range of the colors we see.

The brightness of paper is controlled by how the pulp is bleached, the mixture of dyes and pigments it uses and often, by the addition of special brightening agents. Depending on the standard of measurement, higher quality white coated papers have brightness ratings in the 80s and 90s, even all the way to 100%, with the numbers reflecting the percentage of light striking the surface of the paper that is reflected back to the eye.

While brightness determines the intensity of the colors we see, whiteness determines the range of the colors that we see. A paper that is white reflects all colors equally and comes the closest to reproducing the full spectrum of visible light. However, many papers have a slight blue tint. The reason is that due to the physiology of the human eye, a little bit of blue heightens the perception of brightness and whiteness. The trick is not to overdo it, since the tint begins to act as a filter and change the colors reflected to the eye. The rule of thumb is that if you can detect a strong impression of color— blue or any other—in a plain sheet of paper, the shade is likely to affect the accuracy of the color reproduction. Your best bet is to choose a paper whose shade complements the subject—or a subtle shade that that won’t distort the final results.

But there’s more to paper than brightness and whiteness. The surface of the paper is equally important. Just as a still mountain lake reflects a sharper image than one that is broken by ripples, the smoother the surface of the paper, the crisper the image will be. That’s because rougher surfaces tend to scatter the reflected light, reducing the clarity of the image and distorting the subtleties of its tones.

Ink holdout—the paper’s ability to keep a thin, uniform film of ink on the surface of the paper—is another key factor in capturing color. If the ink is allowed to spread into the paper’s pores and capillaries, the printed dots lose their definition, which results in reduced color contrast and uneven color density.

So for the best color reproduction, you need a smooth, bright, white surface and outstanding ink holdout. And the best place to find them is in premium coated papers such as the gloss, dull and matte papers showcased in this website. That’s because the hard surface of coated paper holds inks, varnishes and other finishes on the top of the paper, without allowing it to run into the valleys found in the surface of uncoated stocks. The smoother the finish, the better the quality of the color. Simple.

Contact your NewPage representative for more information or visit www.NewPageCorp.com.