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February 2006
Whiter vs. Brighter
North American paper mills, to compete with other domestic sheets and foreign imports, are improving the brightness, opacity and whiteness specifications for printing papers – both coated and uncoated.
Grade Finders has published new paper standards in the 2005/2006 Competitive Grade Finder. All paper specifiers will be affected by this change. It’s critical that paper specifiers and paper suppliers are not using the same target brightness standards, the result can cause major headaches.
Brightness is the reflectance at a standard single 457 nn wavelength of the visible spectrum. Brightness was originally intended to measure the amount of bleaching that had been performed on pulp.
Whiteness is the amount of red, blue and green (RGB) reflectance across the total visible spectrum. It measures the degree to which paper reflects light of all wavelengths.
Be sure that you and your paper supplier are talking the same “language” so you do not end up disappointed with your final project. If you are interested in learning more about this debate, please contact your Multi-Craft sales rep and ask for a copy of International Paper’s article on this issue. You can also view an on-line article in the archives of American Printer (Whiter vs. Brighter) December 2005 issue. |
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