Predicting Monochrome Color Transmittance Spectra of Electrophotographic Prints

S. Mourad, P. Emmel, R.D. Hersch

Proc. IS&T's NIP16: Int'l Conf. on Digital Printing Technologies, 2000, pp. 862-866

We create a computer based numerical model to predict the color spectra of printed patches on dry toner electrophotographic printers. The goal of this research is to obtain a simplified model describing the input-output behavior of the printers based on the physical characteristics of the different printing process steps and the interactions between them. This leads to a better understanding of the factors that have an impact on printing quality. Furthermore, by modeling the non-linearities of the electrophotographic process, the prediction model will allow the creation of device calibration data with a minimal effort. In order to avoid the additional optical non-linearities produced by light reflections on paper (dot-gain), we have limited the present investigation to transparency prints. In its current version, the proposed model is capable of predicting the transmittance spectra of a printed monochrome wedge down to a mean deviation less than CIELAB delta E*ab = 1.5. The proposed simulation incorporates sub-models of the electrophotographic process [1, 2] shown in Fig. 1, such as the exposure of the photoreceptor, the generated electrostatic field, the toner's charge and diameterdistributions, as well as the transfer and the fusing steps.

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