Print quality and color accuracy of spectral and colorimetric reproduction

Abstract

When reproducing an image by means of printing, the most common concerns are to have good colors and the least perceivable artefacts. These two concerns are most conveniently conveyed via two common reproduction goals: color accuracy and image quality. The goal of this paper is to evaluate how color accuracy aim relates to printed image qual- ity, the attribute usually tight to the method of halftoning. In order to provide a relation between these two different goals, spectral and colorimetric color management workflows are paired with different halftoning methods. Image quality metrics is employed both on the output from the color separation process and on the print output. Overall, spectral reproduction used in this paper showed higher color accuracy but lower image and print quality score, even if combined with state of the art halftoning methods.