Here is some of my sharing on experience in regards to printing in general of what play a part in regard to printing quality.
Generally speaking there are 2 elements in play and both goes hand in hand. The medium that receive the printing (Paper stock / Card) and the medium that transfer the needed information to the receiver (Ink / Dye)
Transfer Medium (Ink or Dye)
Depend what time of printing method your machine is using you will have different medium. Normally when you purchase a printing machine, the same company would already recommend certain type of ink you should use with the machine. Most of the time the company that made the machine sell their ink supply as well. It is always good to use what the machine manufacturer recommend in order to get a certain expected result.
Basically there are 2 in the market which are Dye-based ink and Pigmented ink.
Dye-Based ink which is synthetic or natural dye is dissolved in water and solvent to give the colour need.
This generally work well with paper medium as it is less reflective of light which give richer colours.
The downside is such medium very much affected by environment overtime which you will see color fading due to UV exposure and other element of nature such as humidity.
Pigmented ink which are resin based mixed with other solvents. The printing method is more intense as you are transferring this ink over the surface of the printed medium.
Once transferred, it will stay there longer than Dye as the Pigmented ink is more stubborn that is water resistance and against UV light. At such this ink cost more than Dye-based.
Regardless of the above ink / Dye, these are the factors measured on how such medium is measured as the following:
- Colorimetric which is how the color is being by the ratio of what type of ink and other soluble to give you certain colors.
- UV Resistance which is how well the ink or dye react against UV light exposure as over a period of time the color content of the dye will break down.
- Water resistance is how the ink or dye react when in contact with water which include humility or rain.
- Drying time is when the ink or dye is transferred and exposed to the air, how long does it take the liquid to dry. If the period is longer, it will result in the ink moving to other places where it not suppose to go such as bleeding. If the ink is easily dry, it could mean if there there is air going into the cartridge, how fast will it dry up.
Do note that the medium of ink or dye do have certain risk of being flammable or potentially irritant to human when handling in certain circumstances.
Receiver Medium (Paper / Card)
This medium play one of the major part has the quality of the print count by the absorbance rate and the retention of the transfer medium (ink / Dye). However in the real world there will not be specs of the rate of absorbance and retention because that very much also depend the compatibility with the transfer medium (ink / Dye).
Absorbance
This is how well this medium can absorb the transferred ink or dye to itself at the given time of printing. How well the ink / dye is allow to penetrate as the ink / dye touch the medium surface. Having good absorbance is preferred but not always the case as too much absorbance will allow ink to go where it not suppose to go and when ink go in as a dot to pixel it need to be in that dot dimension. If the dot is bigger as it suppose to be it will have the image having blur than sharp printing regardless of the printer DPI.
Retention
When the printing is done, it is just the beginning as after a certain period of time what happen to the ink or dye in the paper? Will it stay at the same location or if given in certain environment will the printed content be transfer to another medium it contact with for a certain period of time? Example like you rub your finger on the printed content like newspaper, will the ink move on to the surface? How much will it move over and how intense you need to rub it for that to happen?
Matt or Gloss Surface
You maybe thinking why I have added this surface because this have very much in play on the presentation to your eyes. This is like when you wanted to print a photo, normally you will be given a choice to be printed on Matt or Gloss medium. This purely is on the medium and nothing to do with the printing machine. Even if both paper absorbance and retention are the same and printed with the same ink and DPI, you will see the printed photo differently.
Uneven Surface
When doing printing it is important the medium that is printing on need to be even surface. Any unevenness will result in printing quality inconsistency because the dye will be apply consistency on the surface and if there is bump or a dip, the printing could be off or the dye apply could be lesser or more intense at that instant.
Whiteness degree of the Canvas
If you talk about color printing, the whiteness of the canvas play equally an important part as how the the end result. Imagine you print on a white and whiter canvas, you would see the different tone of colors defer even you are using the same printer setting and dye level.
With the information above, I hope it give you more understanding on how each of these factor play a part of your printing.
Remember not all printing with the same setting give you the same result. The quality of the medium play a part if you want consistence printing.
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