A Simple Method to Measure MTF of Paper and Its Application for Dot Gain Analysis

Masayuki UKISHIMA; Hitomi KANEKO; Toshiya NAKAGUCHI; Norimichi TSUMURA; Markku HAUTA-KASARI; Jussi PARKKINEN; Yoichi MIYAKE

doi:10.1587/transfun.E92.A.3328

A Simple Method to Measure MTF of Paper and Its Application for Dot Gain Analysis

Masayuki UKISHIMA, Hitomi KANEKO, Toshiya NAKAGUCHI, Norimichi TSUMURA, Markku HAUTA-KASARI, Jussi PARKKINEN, Yoichi MIYAKE

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Image quality of halftone print is significantly influenced by optical characteristics of paper. Light scattering in paper produces optical dot gain, which has a significant influence on the tone and color reproductions of halftone print. The light scattering can be quantified by the Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) of paper. Several methods have been proposed to measure the MTF of paper. However, these methods have problems in efficiency or accuracy in the measurement. In this article, a new method is proposed to measure the MTF of paper efficiently and accurately, and the dot gain effect on halftone print is analyzed. The MTF is calculated from the ratio in spatial frequency domain between the responses of incident pencil light to paper and the perfect specular reflector. Since the spatial frequency characteristic of input pencil light can be obtained from the response of perfect specular reflector, it does not need to produce the input illuminant having "ideal" impulse characteristic. Our method is experimentally efficient since only two images need to be measured. Besides it can measure accurately since the data can be approximated by the conventional MTF model. Next, we predict the reflectance distribution of halftone print using the measured MTF in microscopy in order to analyze the dot gain effect since it can clearly be observed in halftone micro-structure. Finally, a simulation is carried out to remove the light scattering effect from the predicted image. Since the simulated image is not affected by the optical dot gain, it can be applied to analyze the real dot coverage.

Publication: IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Fundamentals Vol.E92-A No.12 pp.3328-3335

Publication Date: 2009/12/01

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Online ISSN: 1745-1337

DOI: 10.1587/transfun.E92.A.3328

Type of Manuscript: Special Section PAPER (Special Section on Image Media Quality)

Category: Printing

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Masayuki UKISHIMA, Hitomi KANEKO, Toshiya NAKAGUCHI, Norimichi TSUMURA, Markku HAUTA-KASARI, Jussi PARKKINEN, Yoichi MIYAKE, "A Simple Method to Measure MTF of Paper and Its Application for Dot Gain Analysis" in IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Fundamentals, vol. E92-A, no. 12, pp. 3328-3335, December 2009, doi: 10.1587/transfun.E92.A.3328.
Abstract: Image quality of halftone print is significantly influenced by optical characteristics of paper. Light scattering in paper produces optical dot gain, which has a significant influence on the tone and color reproductions of halftone print. The light scattering can be quantified by the Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) of paper. Several methods have been proposed to measure the MTF of paper. However, these methods have problems in efficiency or accuracy in the measurement. In this article, a new method is proposed to measure the MTF of paper efficiently and accurately, and the dot gain effect on halftone print is analyzed. The MTF is calculated from the ratio in spatial frequency domain between the responses of incident pencil light to paper and the perfect specular reflector. Since the spatial frequency characteristic of input pencil light can be obtained from the response of perfect specular reflector, it does not need to produce the input illuminant having "ideal" impulse characteristic. Our method is experimentally efficient since only two images need to be measured. Besides it can measure accurately since the data can be approximated by the conventional MTF model. Next, we predict the reflectance distribution of halftone print using the measured MTF in microscopy in order to analyze the dot gain effect since it can clearly be observed in halftone micro-structure. Finally, a simulation is carried out to remove the light scattering effect from the predicted image. Since the simulated image is not affected by the optical dot gain, it can be applied to analyze the real dot coverage.
URL: https://global.ieice.org/en_transactions/fundamentals/10.1587/transfun.E92.A.3328/_p

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@ARTICLE{e92-a_12_3328,
author={Masayuki UKISHIMA, Hitomi KANEKO, Toshiya NAKAGUCHI, Norimichi TSUMURA, Markku HAUTA-KASARI, Jussi PARKKINEN, Yoichi MIYAKE, },
journal={IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Fundamentals},
title={A Simple Method to Measure MTF of Paper and Its Application for Dot Gain Analysis},
year={2009},
volume={E92-A},
number={12},
pages={3328-3335},
abstract={Image quality of halftone print is significantly influenced by optical characteristics of paper. Light scattering in paper produces optical dot gain, which has a significant influence on the tone and color reproductions of halftone print. The light scattering can be quantified by the Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) of paper. Several methods have been proposed to measure the MTF of paper. However, these methods have problems in efficiency or accuracy in the measurement. In this article, a new method is proposed to measure the MTF of paper efficiently and accurately, and the dot gain effect on halftone print is analyzed. The MTF is calculated from the ratio in spatial frequency domain between the responses of incident pencil light to paper and the perfect specular reflector. Since the spatial frequency characteristic of input pencil light can be obtained from the response of perfect specular reflector, it does not need to produce the input illuminant having "ideal" impulse characteristic. Our method is experimentally efficient since only two images need to be measured. Besides it can measure accurately since the data can be approximated by the conventional MTF model. Next, we predict the reflectance distribution of halftone print using the measured MTF in microscopy in order to analyze the dot gain effect since it can clearly be observed in halftone micro-structure. Finally, a simulation is carried out to remove the light scattering effect from the predicted image. Since the simulated image is not affected by the optical dot gain, it can be applied to analyze the real dot coverage.},
keywords={},
doi={10.1587/transfun.E92.A.3328},
ISSN={1745-1337},
month={December},}

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TY - JOUR
TI - A Simple Method to Measure MTF of Paper and Its Application for Dot Gain Analysis
T2 - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Fundamentals
SP - 3328
EP - 3335
AU - Masayuki UKISHIMA
AU - Hitomi KANEKO
AU - Toshiya NAKAGUCHI
AU - Norimichi TSUMURA
AU - Markku HAUTA-KASARI
AU - Jussi PARKKINEN
AU - Yoichi MIYAKE
PY - 2009
DO - 10.1587/transfun.E92.A.3328
JO - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Fundamentals
SN - 1745-1337
VL - E92-A
IS - 12
JA - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Fundamentals
Y1 - December 2009
AB - Image quality of halftone print is significantly influenced by optical characteristics of paper. Light scattering in paper produces optical dot gain, which has a significant influence on the tone and color reproductions of halftone print. The light scattering can be quantified by the Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) of paper. Several methods have been proposed to measure the MTF of paper. However, these methods have problems in efficiency or accuracy in the measurement. In this article, a new method is proposed to measure the MTF of paper efficiently and accurately, and the dot gain effect on halftone print is analyzed. The MTF is calculated from the ratio in spatial frequency domain between the responses of incident pencil light to paper and the perfect specular reflector. Since the spatial frequency characteristic of input pencil light can be obtained from the response of perfect specular reflector, it does not need to produce the input illuminant having "ideal" impulse characteristic. Our method is experimentally efficient since only two images need to be measured. Besides it can measure accurately since the data can be approximated by the conventional MTF model. Next, we predict the reflectance distribution of halftone print using the measured MTF in microscopy in order to analyze the dot gain effect since it can clearly be observed in halftone micro-structure. Finally, a simulation is carried out to remove the light scattering effect from the predicted image. Since the simulated image is not affected by the optical dot gain, it can be applied to analyze the real dot coverage.
ER -