Application of gradient method for separately analyzing optical and mechanical dot gain of electrophotography prints

Theultimategoalofeachproductionprocessistooptimizeallthesubprocessesleadingtothehighqual-ityfinalproduct.Withintheprintingprocess, dotgainisidentifiedasoneofthemostimportantvariablestocontrolbecauseoftheextremelynegativeimpacttomiddletonecontrastandtheoverallreproduction.Dotgainconsistsoftwocomponents, mechanicalandopticaldotgain, asare-sultoftwodifferentcontributions.Thisarticleproposesamodelforseparatelyanalyzingcomponentsofdotgainforelectrophotographyprintsusinggradientmethod, wherethe impact of printing technique and paper type will beexamined. It is shown that mechanical dot gain for elec-trophotographyprintscanbesatisfactorilyapproximatedwithGaussian, whilstopticaldotgainisonceagaincon-firmedtohavetheformofaLorentzian.