ContRAST Evaluation of ink jet print quality. Specific measurement in correlation with visual perception.

Print quality is often assessed visually, particularly in the field of ink jet printing. These human evaluations are sometimes in disagreement and incompatible with one another. The Centre Technique du Papier (C.T.P), which has extensive experience in this field and that of image analysis, has developed a system that is capable of measuring each major print quality criterion for ink jet printing quickly and reliably extracting an overall quality index. This measurement is based on a knowledge of the quality of the ink jet printers available on the market, gained by collecting samples to build up a data base that is constantly being enriched as new developments are made on the one hand in print media and on the other in the equipment used (machines and inks). The system is well suited to carrying out benchmarking surveys.