Nordic Pulp & Paper Research Journal 2019; 34(4): 540–549

Printing

Tomislav Cigula*, Tamara Tomašegović and Tomislav Hudika

Effect of the paper surface properties on the ink

transfer parameters in offset printing
https://doi.org/10.1515/npprj-2019-0018
Received February 14, 2019; accepted September 10, 2019; previously
Background
published online October 25, 2019
Offset printing, one of main representatives of the com-
Abstract: Paper has a crucial impact on the qualitative
mercial printing processes, has experienced a technolog-
properties of printed product as properties of the paper’s
ical breakthrough during the last couple of decades (Jung
surface directly impact the ink transfer, consequently, ba-
et al. 2018, Stork and Wilke 2014). Nevertheless, process is
sic optical properties of the print. Although same ISO pa-
constantly improving to shorten the job change time and
per type, papers possess variable surface properties lead-
decrease material costs. Although, improvement of other
ing to different influence on the ink transfer. The aim of
printing techniques is taking some market share from off-
this research was to analyse influence of the surface prop-
set printing, it is still market leader when it comes to the
erties of the paper, including surface free energy, smooth-
high volume printing on paper (Smith 2017). Ink-paper in-
ness and gloss of some standard papers used in lithog-
teraction is the basis of graphic reproduction processes,
raphy on the ink transfer while matching the colorimet-
especially in the offset printing since this technique most
ric values defined by ISO 12647-2:2013. Determination of
often utilizes paper as a printing substrate. Visually sim-
amount of the ink transfer, optical density, mottling and
ilar papers that are of the same ISO classification, have
colour difference of prints were performed to evaluate
different surface properties that depend on manufacturing
paper-ink interactions. Results have shown that produced
process, final price, targeted market or purpose. Every pa-
prints differ in the investigated properties. Furthermore,
there are significant correlations between the surface free per in terms of surface properties is different due to pro-
energy of the paper and paper smoothness and the ink duction process, purpose and type, however, in the end,
transfer. In addition, amount of ink used to produce a stan- produced prints must be within the tolerances of the ISO
dardized print varies for different paper types (even in the standards. While ISO 12647-2:2013 bases its paper types on
same ISO paper classification), meaning difference in ink colorimetric properties and some optical properties (gloss,
costs. This research proved the high influence of paper’s whiteness), physico-chemical and other surface proper-
certain parameters on the ink transfer by strong correla- ties are neglected, except for the stated paper surface coat-
tion coefficients. This enables better process control and ing type (ISO 12647-2:2013). Furthermore, printers mostly
optimization of the printing. set the printing parameters according to the ISO paper
types. This paper aims to analyse the surface parameters
Keywords: colour deviation; ink transfer; mottling; offset of the paper outside the ISO 12647-2:2013 that have a signif-
printing; surface free energy. icant influence on the ink transfer and print quality in gen-
eral. Ink and paper interaction is unmapped research area
with development and introduction of new inks (Robert
et al. 2018, Vukoje et al. 2018) and paper types (Možina
and Franken 2018, Kajanto et al. 2013) to the market. Some
newer researches are dealing with the influence of the pa-
per and its properties on some parameters of the print, for
*Corresponding author: Tomislav Cigula, University of Zagreb example the paper production process and estimation of
Faculty of Graphic Arts, Getaldiceva 2, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia, e-mail: the ink transfer (Babakhanova et al. 2018, Gu et al. 2015,
[email protected], ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6901-0344 Zhu et al. 2013, Zhijian et al. 2012). Since offset printing uti-
Tamara Tomašegović, Tomislav Hudika, University of Zagreb Faculty
lizes fountain solution for halftone printing, special atten-
of Graphic Arts, Getaldiceva 2, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia, e-mails:
[email protected], [email protected], ORCID:
tion is being given to the interaction of water and paper,
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9865-0604 (T. Tomašegović), and the influence on the print quality in terms of mottling
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4662-4663 (T. Hudika) (Thorman et al. 2018, Tåg et al. 2018). Some authors have

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investigated and presented the methods for mottling deter- as well as their range of the types of coatings, enabled the
mination on the print on various substrates (Anayath and analysis of the influence of their particular surface charac-
Baral 2016, Jurič et al. 2013), mainly for the application in teristic on the ink transfer and the properties of the print.
digital printing. Influence of the surface free energy of pa- Printing ink used in this research was standard cold-set
per on mottling has been investigated, as well (Gigac et al. sheetfed process black. The ink was produced by the Sun-
2014), but as a sole parameter of the paper surface. Fur- Chemical (USA), member of the DIC group, with the com-
thermore, effects of the paper properties on the print gloss mercial name SunLit Express Process Black.
and ink mileage have been well investigated for printing
techniques other than offset (Xu 2006). In offset printing,
ink mileage was recently investigated in terms of various Methods and devices
process and material parameters, without focusing on the
Smoothness (Bekk method)
influence of the paper in the ink transfer process (Thakur
and Crasta 2016). Automatization of the ink transfer was
For the purpose of determining the smoothness of the pa-
also recently analysed (Varepo et al. 2018). One can con-
per, ten samples were cut for each type of paper to dimen-
clude that present economical and qualitative parameters
sions of 50 x 50 mm. Smoothness of the paper samples was
encourage further research and detailed analysis of mate-
determined according to Bekk method. The smoothness
rials that are included in the printing process – paper and
test was carried out according to TAPPI standard T 479.
ink being the crucial ones.
Each sample was placed on the glass plate above which
The aim of this research was to evaluate the signifi-
the measuring head is located. Measuring head was then
cance of the surface properties of the paper – specifically,
lowered to the sample, pressing it with weight of 10 kg. Af-
the components of the surface free energy, smoothness
ter that, the vacuum pump adjusted the air tank to a tar-
and gloss – on the ink transfer, ink usage and offset print
get pressure of 50.7 kPa. Depending on the smoothness of
quality in terms of the optical density, ΔE, gloss and mot-
the test sample, the air remaining between the paper sur-
tling.
face and the glass plate is transferred to the tank until the
pressure drops to 48.0 kPa. The time it takes for the air vol-
ume of 10 ml to achieve pressure of 48.0 kPa presented the
Experimental smoothness value expressed in seconds. The higher the re-
sult, the smoother the surface is (Smithers Pira n.d.).
Selection and preparation of samples
For this experiment, 5 types of papers with different sur- Gloss
face properties were chosen: four coated papers (marked
with C1–C4) and one uncoated paper (marked with U). C1 Paper and print gloss were measured using a glossmeter
was gloss coated paper, C2 matte coated, C3 bulk coated that measures reflective glare. Light intensity was mea-
and C4 bulk low-coated (4 times lesser amount of coat- sured over a range of reflected angles. The intensity of
ing). The C1 and C2 are papers with grammage of 300 g/m2 the light depends on the material and the angle of illumi-
from the producer UPM with the commercial names Fi- nation. In the case of non-metals (coating, plastics), the
nesse gloss and Finesse silk, respectively. The C3 and C4 amount of reflected light increases with increased angle
are same paper sample SinarVANDA with the grammage of illumination. The remaining part of the light penetrates
of 305 g/m, C3 being felt side with the minimal coating into the material and is absorbed or diffused (van der Walle
amount of 20 g/m2 and C4 wire side with the minimal coat- et al. 1999). In this research, glossmeter Elcometer 407 was
ing amount of 6 g/m2 . The sample denoted as U is Sappi used for the measurements (Elcometer n.d.). Gloss was
Tauro uncoated paper with the grammage of 115 g/m2 . Pa- measured at the angle of 60°, ten times for each paper sam-
pers were cut to the dimensions required for different mea- ple, and five times for each print sample (50 measurements
suring methods used to analyse their properties, and to in total for each set of prints on one paper substrate). Since
conduct the laboratory printing. After that, samples were two types of paper used in this research were low-gloss pa-
conditioned at temperature of 21 ± 1 °C and 50–55 % rel- pers (C4, U) and did not qualify for the measurements ac-
ative humidity for 24 hours before the measurements and cording to TAPPI/ANSI T 480 om-15 method at 75° or 20°,
printing. Papers chosen for this research are widely used in universal gloss measurement at 60° was conducted. This
the offset printing, and their different surface properties, enabled the comparison between the gloss of all papers

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542 | T. Cigula et al.: Effect of the paper surface properties on the ink transfer parameters in offset printing

and their corresponding prints in order to assess the rela- printing roller. Precut paper samples were placed on the
tionship between the paper gloss and the gloss of the print, rubber plate that sits on the belt-feed console and driven
and calculate the correlation coefficients. under the printing roller, producing a print. Before and af-
ter every print, roller had to be weighed for the gravimetric
measurements of ink transfer. After every print, printing
Surface free energy roller was washed from ink residue and dried to maintain
repeatability and consistency of the results. The printing
Surface free energy (SFE) and contact angles on paper sam- process was conducted by making three series of prints by
ples were analysed using the Data Physics OCA 30 go- varying amount of the printing ink put into the distribut-
niometer and four test liquids: water, diiodomethane, glyc- ing system of the printability tester. The amounts of the ink
erol and formamide. SFE of the test liquids and their con- used were 0.12 cm³ (S1), 0.15 cm³ (S2) and 0.18 cm³ (S3). For
tact angles on the paper were the parameters used to cal- each type of paper, 10 prints were produced. The printing
culate the SFE of the paper samples. Contact angles were ink was distributed for the 30 second and then inking of
measured by sessile drop method, ten times on each paper the printing roller was made in 30 cycles. Printing speed
at different positions on the sample. The shape of the drop was 1 m/s and printing pressure was set at 150 N/cm2 .
was a spherical cap and the volume of the drop was 1 µl
(Tomašegović et al. 2016). All measurements of the contact
angles were performed at the same moment after the drop Gravimetry of the ink transfer and ink mileage
had touched the paper surface – with a delay of 20 frames.
The measurements of the contact angle were performed by Gravimetry was calculated for the wet ink transfer to the
applying 10 droplets of each liquid on the paper surface. print. Before each print, the printing roller was weighed
SFE was calculated using the OWRK method (Owens on Mettler Toledo XS205 analytic scale, and then weighed
and Wendt 1969). After the contact angles were obtained immediately after the print. In this way, the exact amount
for each test liquid on the sample, the mean values for of the ink transferred to each paper could be measured.
each sample were calculated. Contact angles of probe liq- Quantity of ink applied (M) could be calculated since the
uids (water, diiodomethane, glycerol and formamide) en- area of each print was known. The quantity of ink applied
able the calculation of SFE and its polar and dispersive is calculated using Equation 2:
components (Equation 1):
G1 − G2
M= (2)
A
= √γsP √ + √γsD
(1 − cosθ) ⋅ γs γlP
(1)
√γ
2 D
l
γlD where G1 is the mass of the printing roller before printing,
G2 is the mass of the printing roller after printing and A is
where γs surface tension of the solid, γl surface tension of the printing roller area.
liquid, γD dispersive component of surface tension, γP po-
lar component of surface tension and θ contact angle.
Optical measurements of papers and prints

Printing process In order to make sure that printing on each paper was in
respect to ISO 12647-2:2013 standard, L*a*b* values were
Printing process was carried out by means of Prüfbau mul- calculated on each unprinted paper type. ΔEab was calcu-
tipurpose printability tester MZ II (Prüfbau 2016). For the lated from measurements of L*a*b* values on each print.
purpose of the printing process, all papers were cut by Furthermore, optical density was measured on prints, as
means of Heidelberg Polar cutter to 25 cm × 4.6 cm. Prüf- it is commonly used to detect instability of the ink trans-
bau multipurpose printability tester can simulate various fer in a print series. All optical measurements were carried
printing techniques, among them the offset printing. In out by means of X-rite eXact spectrophotometer. The ΔEab
this experiment, printing was carried out without a print- was calculated as a difference between print and target val-
ing plate, using only printing roller in waterless system. ues for colour on coated/uncoated substrates set by ISO
Ink was applied using an ink micro pipette into the dis- 12647-2:2013 standard (for coated papers the L*a*b* coor-
tribution system, the rubber-metal roller system with rota- dinates are 16, 0, 0 and for uncoated papers 32, 1, 0). In
tional and axial movement and spread for 30 seconds in addition, ΔEab was also used to detect visual differences
order to get even ink film which will be transferred to the between prints on different substrates. Gloss on the prints

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was measured by the same method as gloss of the papers,

discussed in Subsection Gloss.

Determination of mottling on the prints

To detect if paper influences uniformity of prints, mot-

tling was calculated using gray level coocurrence matrix
(GLCM) (Jurič et al. 2013, Hladnik et al. 2010). The printed
samples were scanned by the means of Epson Perfection
V750 Pro at the resolution of 600 dpi, grayscale image
and saved without compression in tiff format. Those im-
ages were then analysed by image analysis, using ImageJ
Figure 1: Paper substrates gloss and smoothness.
software v1.52k with the GLCM using GLCM Texture plugin
(Cabrera 2003).

when the paper has higher smoothness. The two are in

good correlation, with calculated Spearman correlation
Results and discussion coefficient of 0.8. Since the gloss value is optical property
directly dependant on the amount of reflected light de-
Measurements of the paper characteristics tected, smooth surface will not scatter as much light, so
more will be detected at the defined angle (Nadal and Am-
As mentioned earlier, calculation of the surface free energy bler Thompson 2000).
(SFE), measurements of smoothness, L*a*b* coordinates The SFE measurements showed that almost all inves-
and gloss of paper samples were conducted. In the Table 1 tigated papers are in the similar range of SFE values, with
one could see average values of paper characteristics mea- the dominant dispersive component of the SFE. The matte
surements and associated standard deviation. coated paper has around 20 % lower total SFE and the
As one can see, the coating on the surface of the paper highest amount of the polar component of the SFE (around
has significant influence on paper’s smoothness and gloss, 7.5 % while second highest is uncoated paper (U) with the
but in the same time almost no influence on the SFE of the amount of polar component of 3.8 % of the total SFE).
paper surface. Although one would expect that the increase of the pa-
The smoothness test showed that the smoothness per smoothness (as opposite to the paper roughness) will
value is higher when paper is coated. Although paper sam- result with decrease of the surface free energy of paper
ple C3 is coated, the coating is made with the significantly samples, the results showed that there is no correlation
lower amount of coating (5 g/m2 ) in comparison to the between the two (Spearman correlation coefficient is 0).
other paper samples (> 20 g/m2 ) and therefore more simi- This could be the consequence of the scales of the measur-
lar to the uncoated paper. ing methods. As written earlier, smoothness is detected by
Figure 1 shows the influence of paper smoothness on sucking the air through the pores of the paper sample de-
the paper gloss value. The gloss of the paper is higher tecting even the smallest pores. On the other hand, surface

Table 1: Surface properties of the paper samples.

Paper sample Property

SFE [mN/m] Smootness (Bekk Gloss at
Method) [s] 60o [GU]
Total Dispersive Polar

C1 46.28±0.32 45.86±0.30 0.42±0.10 535.96±20.00 32.43±0.25

C2 37.16±1.82 34.37±1.68 2.79±0.70 114.54±3.20 7.61±0.05
C3 45.80±0.98 45.78±0.97 0.02±0.03 103.6±6.67 9.86±0.14
C4 47.44±0.54 45.76±0.42 1.68±0.33 24.76±1.16 2.6±0.00
U 45.79±1.04 44.03±1.00 1.76±0.30 22.38±1.64 3.55±0.05

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free energy is calculated from the contact angle measure- The average value and associated standard deviation
ment with the low volume of liquid drop in millimetre di- of the ink weight transferred on the printing substrate (m),
mensions. In addition to the results presented in Table 1, i. e. ink film weight on the printing substrate is given in Ta-
L*a*b* coordinates of the paper samples were measured. ble 2. As it can be seen, increase of the printing ink amount
Although surface properties of the paper samples are dif- in the distribution system increases the ink transfer on the
ferent, all paper samples, except U which is outside the tol- substrates on all printing samples. By smallest ink quan-
erances in the b* value, are in the tolerances of the infor- tity (0.12 cm3 ) the coated papers accept smaller quantities
mative tables presented in ISO 12647-2:2013 meaning that of ink, and the ink transfer on the low coated paper (C4) is
they are all in the same paper substrate group (PS1), i. e. highest for all ink quantities.
must comply to the same colour reproduction target.
Table 2: Weight of the wet ink transferred on the printing substrate.

Results of the prints characterization Sample S1 (mg) S2 (mg) S3 (mg)

C1 9.53±1.38 10.00±0.50 10.95±1.28

As written in experimental part, the printing process was
C2 8.46±0.85 10.55±0.65 12.48±1.08
conducted by adding different amounts of printing ink in C3 8.83±1.25 11.10±0.44 12.75±1.07
the distribution system in order to achieve colour toler- C4 9.87±0.75 12.88±1.08 13.40±0.94
ances on the print that comply to the ISO standard. U 9.65±0.73 10.20±1.42 12.62±0.78
One of the difficulties in the analysis printing process
is the fact that optical density of the ink film changes with
the ink drying. The difference in density of the wet and dry The prepared prints were evaluated by optical mea-
print (ΔD) is presented in Figure 2, where columns show av- surements, measuring optical density, colour deviation
erage values of the measurements and the error bars repre- ΔEab calculated to the target values for process black (ISO
sent associated standard deviation. The density of the dry 12647-2:2013) and gloss value of the dried ink film. In Ta-
ink film is lower than the wet film ink on substrates C3, C4 bles 3–5 one can see the average values and standard de-
and U; while on C1 and C2 it stays nearly the same after viation of the results of the optical characterization of the
drying. printed samples.
As one can see in Table 3, increasing amount of the ink
in the inking system increases density on the prints on all
printed samples which is expected as transfer of the ink
from the printing roller onto the substrate is also increas-
ing (Table 2). The experiment was planned to make prints

Table 3: Print samples density [1].

Sample S1 S2 S3

C1 1.77±0.05 1.85±0.03 1.99±0.04

C2 1.55±0.05 1.78±0.04 1.92±0.05
C3 1.50±0.05 1.76±0.03 1.92±0.03
C4 1.26±0.03 1.52±0.04 1.60±0.06
U 0.93±0.02 1.04±0.01 1.11±0.03

Figure 2: Change of the optical density of the ink film due to the
drying process.
Table 4: Print samples ΔEab [1].

Sample S1 S2 S3
The presented results indicate that by printing on less C1 3.69±0.96 4.01±0.60 6.89±0.68
coated or uncoated papers, the ink adsorption is higher C2 2.16±1.11 2.48±0.86 5.49±1.12
due to the paper structure, which will require printing with C3 2.07±0.60 2.85±1.20 5.49±0.55
C4 12.26±1.03 3.02±0.86 4.46±1.04
higher amounts of ink. This can cause difficulties in the
U 4.91±0.62 4.56±0.35 2.69±1.12
post printing production.

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Table 5: Print samples gloss at 60o [GU].

other printed samples will not be perceived by an aver-
age observer. To illustrate the difference the printed sam-
Sample S1 S2 S3
ples are presented in Figure 3. Calculation of the colour
C1 60.53±4.04 64.53±1.31 63.89±3.23
difference was not performed for uncoated paper sample
C2 35.32±2.00 40.70±2.84 44.03±2.50
C3 35.92±1.57 40.18±1.31 43.44±0.74
(U), as it has different colour target according to the ISO
C4 6.97±0.41 9.39±0.79 10.18±0.60 12647-2:2013 standard.
U 2.90±0.12 3.13±0.21 3.20±0.19 Another significant parameter in the print quality as-
sessment is mottling (Figure 4). Print mottle can be a good
measure of the visual unevenness of the printed surface.

of the colour deviation (ΔEab ) inside of the tolerances set

by ISO 12647-2:2013 (ΔEab ≤ 5), it is obvious that more ink
quantities could results with the ΔEab inside the tolerance
(Table 4). Nevertheless, as some are near the limit one
should print with ink amount which will result with lower
colour deviation. In the Table 3 one could see that gloss
value of the prints is also increasing with the increase of
the ink film thickness, i. e. density value. Furthermore, one
can see that printing on the coated substrates results with
higher gloss value. Figure 4: Unevenness of the print on samples C1 from S1 and U
For the analysis of the colour deviation between from S3.
printed samples of coated papers (same colour target) the
samples were chosen according to achieved lowest colour Results of the print mottle evaluation (GLCM parame-
deviation (Table 4). The samples denominated in Table 6 ters energy and entropy) are presented in Figure 5. Accord-
are: C1–3 from series S1 and C4 from series S2. In the ta- ing to previous research, the print is more uniform if the
ble are presented average values and calculated standard energy is high and the entropy is low (Jurič et al. 2016).
deviation. Coated papers have more even ink film surface. Fur-
As can be seen in Table 4, colour difference on almost thermore, more ink transferred on the printing substrate
all printing samples was within the tolerances defined by will result with more even ink film surface, i. e. lower print
standard (exceptions are C1–3 from S3 and C4 from S1). In mottle. But as stated previously, if the more ink on the sub-
Table 6 one can see that colour differences between chosen strate will result with higher colour deviation that will not
samples as mentioned above. It is visible that difference be acceptable in the process standardization. If the colour
between gloss coated print (C1) and other printed samples deviation is in the tolerances set by the standard one could
(C2–C4) is above 5, which is clearly visible by an average benefit from more ink (although higher cost in production)
observer (Mokrzycki and Tatol 2011). Difference between to gain more uniform ink film.

Table 6: Colour difference between prepared samples.

Sample pairs C1–C2 C1–C3 C1–C4 C2–C3 C2–C4 C3–C4

ΔEab [1] 5.69±1.25 5.74±1.47 6.20±1.78 2.26±0.83 1.89±1.05 2.07±0.95

Figure 3: Printed samples C1, C2, C3, C4 (from left to right).

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Figure 6: Influence of printing substrate smoothness (left) and pa-

Figure 5: Parameters of the print mottle assessment (GLCM energy
per substrate gloss (right) on the transfer of the printing ink.
left and GLCM entropy right).

ink transfer due to the higher adhesion of the printing ink

Interaction between substrates and print on the less smooth, i. e. rougher, paper substrate surface.
properties On the other side, paper smoothness has significant
influence on the print mottle (Figure 7). The ink film on
Influences of printing substrate smoothness and paper the print will be more uniform as the paper smoothness
gloss on the transfer of the printing ink in the printing pro- is higher. Calculated Spearman correlation coefficients be-
cess are shown in Figure 6 left and right, respectively. tween paper smoothness and GLCM entropy results with
Paper smoothness and paper gloss have similar in- −1, −0.7 and −0.9 for sample series S1, S2 and S3, respec-
fluence on the ink transfer for all experimental setups, tively.
i. e. set ink amounts. If the paper has higher smooth- The relation between paper’s surface free energy (SFE)
ness/gloss value the transfer of the printing ink will be and ink transfer is shown in Figure 8. There is no strong
smaller. The calculated Spearman correlation coefficients correlation between paper’s SFE for S2 and S3 but cal-
for paper smoothness and ink amount are −0.6 for S1, −0.7 culated correlation coefficient for S1 is 0.7. This result in-
for S3 and −0.4 for S2. This indicates that there is moder- dicates that increasing amount of the printing ink to be
ate correlation for two sets, but weak for the set 2. For the transferred onto the paper reduces influence of the paper’s
paper gloss values calculated Spearman correlation coef- SFE.
ficients are −0.6 for S1 and S2 and −0.7 for S3. Observing the printing process one could expect that
Micro pores of the paper resulting with lower smooth- interfacial interaction between the ink and the paper sur-
ness or gloss will in the process of printing cause higher face will be more present when the ink film on the print-

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Figure 7: Smoothness of paper substrate and GLCM entropy on Figure 9: Paper substrates and imprints gloss value.
print.

higher-coated paper substrates (C1–C3). For the uncoated

paper substrate (U), the gloss value of print is nearly the
same as the value on the paper. The correlation coefficients
between print and paper gloss are high, 0.9 for S1 and 0.8
for S2 and S3. Furthermore, thicker ink film on the print
results with higher gloss value.
Taking into account the results of the prints evalua-
tion (ΔEab and GLCM mottle assessment) ink mileage was
calculated for the best printing results, C1 and C2 from the
S1, C3 and C4 from S2 and U from S3 series (Table 7). The
results of the ink mileage calculation are very important in
the optimization and planning of the printing process.
As it is visible in Table 7, printing with coated papers
will results with about 20–30 % less ink consumption.
Figure 8: SFE of paper substrates and weight of the transferred ink.

Conclusions
ing roller is thinner. As the surface free energy of paper
is mainly dispersive (Table 1), it causes good adhesion of This research was conducted with the aim of performing
oil-based printing ink. On the other hand, when the ink the evaluation of the paper substrate influence on the ink
film on the printing roller is thicker, higher viscosity of the transfer in the offset printing process and consequently,
printing ink, the printing pressure and ink splitting mech- on the properties of the print. The experimental part was
anisms will have larger influence on the ink transfer than set to obtain the laboratory prints with colour differences
the substrate-ink interaction. within the tolerances set by the ISO 12647-2:2013 standard.
After the printing process, gloss value on the printed The paper substrates were chosen to have different sur-
papers increases compared to the values on the unprinted face finish and were characterized by determining surface
papers (Figure 9). The increase of gloss is higher for the free energy, and optically by measuring gloss and smooth-

Table 7: Ink mileage of the print samples.

Sample C1 C2 C3 C4 U
2
Ink mileage [g/m ] 0.7942±0.1146 0.7048±0.0712 0.9250±0.0363 1.1550±0.1022 1.0521±0.0649

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