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Summary:
Stanton and Hutton, who proposed the theory that Tone Value Increase Ratios (TVI Ratios) of CMYK four colors tend to be a constant, did not conduct experiments with different printing processes or with different substrates in their 1999 research paper titled "An Analysis of Sheetfed Lithographic Print Attributes." Based on True Experimental Designs and with various printing processes covering conventional lithography, hybrid lithography, conventional flexography, hybrid flexography, waterless lithography, screen printing and digital printing, this study conducts printing experiments on different substrates including coated paper, uncoated paper, PVC substrate, PP synthetic, (PP) paper, greenback (GB) paper, canvas and compact disc for calculation of TVI Ratios of four-color (C, M, Y, K) printing and analysis of differences among different combinations. Results of the study show that TVI Ratios of different substrates with the same printing process tend to be to a constant. For example, the TVI Ratio of 50:75 for PVC for black digital printing is 1.3127; for GB, 1.3020; for PP, 1.3307; for canvas, 1.3353; all converging to a constant. On the other hand, the same has been found when printing on the same substrate with different printing processes, i.e., when printing on coated paper, the TVI ratios of 50:25 for conventional lithography is 1.2490 while for hybrid lithography it is 1.2940. It is therefore reasonable to infer that same can also be observed at the TVI ratios of 50:25 and 50:75 when printing on the same substrate with different printing processes or when printing on different substrate with the same printing processes. Further studies focused on TVI Ratio differences between same printing processes against different substrates as well as TVI Ratio differences between same substrate against different printing processes and further analyses on correlations with Solid Ink Densities and Print Contrast are suggested to follow-up studies aiming at identification of possible relations or prediction model for the printing industry as basis of quality control.