International Newspaper Color Quality Club 2000-2004

Greybalance -- a key element in colour

reproduction
by Andy Williams
Greybalance is really the art of obtaining accurate-looking colours, including
neutral-looking whites, greys and blacks. In effect, it requires centring your
printing colour space with a relatively neutral colour axis.
Fig. 1 A colour space (CIELAB)
Greybalance is a necessary characteristic of high quality colour reproduction. If
the greybalance is wrong and the light-to-dark axis of the colour space is not
aligned properly with a relative neutral, then all colours will be shifted and
reproduced with a corresponding colour cast. This applies equally to monitors,
proofing devices and to print colour spaces. Sometimes this neutral can be a
standard daylight light source like D65 or D50 for monitors in non-proofing mode,
and sometimes the paper substrate in proofing and printing.
Greybalance is also synonymous with greyscale reproduction, though the
reproduction of the greyscale is only a part of the colour space. One small step of
the greyscale can become a target colour and used as a valuable process control
tool for visually monitoring greybalance of production copies, though it is a little
illogical to expect that this target grey is representative of the whole greyscale.
(Dot gain, which has a strong influence on greybalance, does not always have a
regular symmetrical relationship with the tone scale. It can be selective.
Sometimes the shadow tones exhibit disproportional dot gain - more than other
parts of the tone scale, especially if the plate exposure or printing pressures are
high. This can lead to greybalance errors). This same single greyscale step can
also be used, though wrongly, for visually controlling special print runs with test
images and testformes.
Key points about greybalance
There are numerous facts about greybalance and greys generally, that must be
acknowledged:
Solid cyan, magenta and yellow areas printed with the same ink film thickness
dont produce a neutral black, but a brown colour.
Unlike additive colour mixes of pure red, green and blue monochromatic light
(which produce white), subtractive pigmented colours like cyan, magenta and
yellow printing inks, are not ideal and 100% efficient reflectors or absorbers of
parts of the colour spectrum.
Unequal percent dot area values of cyan, magenta and yellow are needed to
produce a neutral halftone grey, because of the inefficient light absorbencies of
the inks.
Greybalance in a picture means that greys are reproduced as greys and that all
other colours are seen as largely relative to this colour.
The human eye is most sensitive to small changes in the colour balance of
neutrals and colours close to the neutral axis.
-110
-90
-70
-50
-30
-10
10
30
50
70
90
110
-110 -90 -70 -50 -30 -10 10 30 50 70 90 110
a*
b
*
Fig. 2 Chromaticity discrimination ellipses corresponding to constant according
to a refined colour difference equation, MR2c.
The MR2c equation was a relatively new development of the 1976 CIELAB
formula for colour difference. It contained many of the improvements now
incorporated into the proposed CIE DE 2000 colour difference formula.
The important points to note about the diagram are:
Each ellipse corresponds to a of one a just noticeable change in colour.
As one reduces the chroma (the a* and b* values), the ellipses become smaller.
This means that as colours become less saturated and closer to the neutral grey
axis, the eye becomes more sensitive to changes in chroma. Close to neutral,
even quite small changes in chroma and colour can be detected.
Whites, greys and even blacks appear neutral in colour only when their CIELAB a*
and b* values colour co-ordinates match the colour of the substrate. A neutral
highlight grey on newsprint conforming to the ISO 12647/3 Standard has a
L*a*b* colour value of a*=0 and b*=4. If one tries to compensate for the yellow
of the newsprint by increasing the percentage of cyan in the highlights so that
a*=0 and b*=0, the highlights will have a blue colour cast compared to the
paper.
A good strategy is to use the a* and b* colour values of the paper as the target
values for the complete range of greys from white to black. For newspapers,
both the newsprint and the black ink have very similar a* and b* colour co-
ordinates. The colour of the monochrome black, for the monochrome text and the
black and white pictures, as well as the 4-colour black can be very nearly
harmoniously combined with the same a* and b* values.
Newspaper Printing Standard ISO 12647-3, an Overview
Parameters Specifications
For the following printing processes Newspaper Coldset Offset
Newspaper Letterpress
Greybalance
Quarter-tone
Midtone
Three quarter tone
Cyan
25%
50%
75%
Magenta
18%
40%
64%
Yellow
18%
40%
64%
Fig. 3 ISO provides no colorimetric values for the three greys specified only that
they should be neutral. Neutral needs to be defined.
Factors which affect greybalance
The main factors are ink film thickness, dot gain, trapping and ink colour
strength.
Ink film thickness and dot gain have been described in previous articles in this
series.
Trapping is the efficiency with which one wet ink film layer is accepted by an
underlying wet ink layer. Trapping is largely influenced by the ink rheological
property of tack but ink tack is not handled the same way in newspaper printing
as in commercial offset printing. Newsprint is a very absorbent paper. The first
ink to contact the newsprint surface quickly flows, under pressure, into the
cavities between the paper fibres and assumes a stronger bond between it and
the paper than between it and the next transferred ink film. The first ink
transferred (e.g. cyan in a CMYK ink sequence) then has a higher natural tack
than the second ink. Similarly, the second and third ink colours also then assume
a higher tack than subsequent colours too.
Because of this natural order of tack gradient, the majority of process colour
newsinks are supplied without a difference in tack properties. Ink suppliers even
make an effort not to tack grade their newsinks because they are not always sure
in which print sequence their customers will use their inks. Tack-graded newsinks
can be manufactured, but it seldom occurs.
The principal factor that can upset the successful trapping of newsinks is the
damping or ink emulsification level. As indicated above, any printability problems
with the secondary, RGB overprint colours could be a trapping problem induced
by too much water emulsification or too much damping. The print primary colours
are generally weakened, leading to the need for increased ink levels.
Ink colour strength is normally a decision of the newspaper either standard
process colour inks or else highly pigmented inks. Basically, the ink manufacturer
supplies what is asked for by their customer and is able to supply inks that
conform to the ISO 12647-3 colours. Colour strength is not fundamentally a
variable factor as far as the user is concerned, though obviously high strength
inks are likely to have different dot gain and greybalance characteristics if only
because they are printed with thinner ink film thicknesses.
Establishing greybalance (Ifra target) and aligning it with newsprint?
Print a greybalance testforme with constant ink film thicknesses using the solid
densities or colour measurement values that correspond to the ISO 12647/3
CIELAB target values. That was the rule learnt from the article on Dot Gain.
Keep the ink film thicknesses constant. Then the ink manufacturers and the
prepress people can adjust the cyan, magenta and yellow tones to achieve the
correct greyness and colour.
Fig. 4 Ifra Greybalance target based on the ISO 12647-3 Standard.
A greybalance target based on the ISO 12647-3 Standard shall be available for
downloading from the International Newspaper Color Quality Club web sites. The
means of determining your greybalance is to plot a graph of PostScript or
measured film dot area versus the measured CIELAB L* and/or black filter
density value of each 3-colour grey patch with the closest a* and b* values to
your newsprint. By plotting the individual dot areas for cyan, magenta and yellow
at these 3-colour grey points, it is possible to see how close the measured
greybalance is to the ISO Standard and where improvements should be made.
Implementing your greybalance is part of the automatic calculation in generating
an ICC profile in a colour management system. For non-colour managed colour
separation systems, a more detailed manual set-up is required, but it is possible,
even in Photoshop 6.x (with Custom CMYK or Color Management Off). The
main Photoshop adjustments involve setting the average Dot Gain value and
careful settings of the individual characteristic tone curves for cyan, magenta and
yellow.
6
5
4
3
2
1
70
68
66
64
62
60
59
57
55
53
51
49
28
26
24
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20
18
80
78
76
74
72
70
16
14
12
10
8
6
24
22
20
18
16
14
46
44
42
40
38
36
6 5 4 3 1 2 80 78 76 74 70 72 5 85
70 68 66 64 60 62 16 14 12 10 6 8 75 15
59 57 55 53 49 51 24 22 20 18 14 16 65 25
28 26 24 22 18 20 46 44 42 40 36 38 30 50
YELLOW
M
A
G
E
N
T
A
CYAN
Evaluating greybalance in the INCQC 2002-2004
There are two stages in the INCQC 2002-2004 evaluation when we shall look at
greybalance:
The first stage is in the evaluation of the 22-step greyscale on the IT8.7/2 target.
We shall measure all the steps and look for deviations in the a* and b* values
from those of the paper. A maximum of 15 points will be awarded, if the sum of
C* (Chroma or color saturation values) measured in the 22 patches is less or
equals 30. If the sum of C* measured in the 22 patches is greater 50, no points
will be scored.
The second stage involves three of the fourteen patches of the special colour test
strip that has to be printed in addition to the standard images. The ISO 12647
Standard requires that three predefined CMY halftone combinations, as listed in
the data, should print as neutral. If each of these three patches has a chroma of
C* equal to 4
ab
+/-1 (the target is a*=0, b*=4), then the maximum of 15 points
can be awarded. If the C* value for each patch is more than 8
ab
or less than 0
ab
then no points are awarded for the patch.
Greybalance is a key element in colour reproduction and deserves careful set-up
and monitoring of the parameters that influence it. However, all the information
needed for a successful operation is easily obtainable with the help and co-
operation of your press-, paper and ink suppliers.