Theoretical Analysis of Color Errors Associated with Dot Area Metrology.

A theoretical analysis has been conducted to determine the color errors associated with the measurement of dot areas of single ink printed products of a three color process. Selected colors and visual neutrals were selected as typical critical colors. The fractional dot area requirements to reproduce colorimetrically the selected colors for a typical offset ink set were determined by the solution of the Neugebauer Equations for the dot area. Two types of instruments were considered, a reflection densitometer and a reflection colorimeter. The computer results indicate that the color errors are a function of the specific colors and the visual reflectance.