Print Quality Evaluation and Applied Colour Management in Coldset Offset Newspaper Print

This paper aims to investigate print quality in newspaper print by considering the appropriate calibration standard and applying colour management. In particular it looks at the colorimetric properties of eight Norwegian newspaper printing presses in order to evaluate the relevant colour separation approach, either by applying custom separation profiles or by using an industry standard. The key method underlying the work described here relies on obtaining colour measurements to determine the repeatability of each participant in terms of colour differences. Furthermore the variation between the eight newspaper printing processes and the variation according to the colorimetric values of the ISO 12647-3:2005 standard are important parts of the quantitative evaluation. According to the colour measurements two custom ICC profiles were generated, The profile "NADA X" is calculated based on the obtained colour measurement data of the first test print run and "NADA Y" is computed on an average data set including colour measurement data of the first test print run and the measurement data set of ISOnewspaper26v4, along with the international standard profile "ISOnewspaper24v4.icc" which we here denote "NADA Z". The three profiles were applied to four test images, which were then printed by eight newspaper printing presses. A psychophysical experiment was carried out to determine pleasantness of the reproductions made according to the three profiles used. Finally the results of the study indicate the performance of the appropriate profile applying to the eight newspaper printing presses to obtain significant best print quality.