The influence of pH/conductivity of fountain solution on dot circularity, line and text raggedness

Abstract

The influence of pH and conductivity of fountain solutions on the quality of dot, line and text raggedness was investigated. Physico-chemical parameters of fountain solutions were analyzed by standard methods. Image quality assessment (IQA) was carried out using the ISO methodology and ImageJ software. There is a great influence of pH and conductivity of fountain solutions on the final quality of magenta prints. Magenta dot circularity on the printed sheets showed the mutual nonlinear dependence, second-order polynomial, followed by equation: y = 0.00514x2 - 0.07524x + 0.78238. Line analysis pointed out the least raggedly edges of 1pt horizontal and vertical lines. Times printed text had the most raggedly edges in comparison with Arial. The results indicated that the dot circularity, line and text raggedness could be useful attributes in the quality control of offset prints.

Keywords

• pH
• conductivity
• fountain solution
• sheet-fed offset
• print quality