Characterizing coated paper surface for modeling apparent dot area of halftone prints

A new model is proposed for predicting the apparent dot area of simulated halftone prints on coated paper surface without requiring printing. It is based on Hotelling's multivariate T(2) statistic which is shown to provide a measure of lateral light scattering. The T(2) statistic is computed from colorimetric coordinates obtained from of a knife shadow image response on the paper surface. The proposed method offers superior prediction of halftone dot area compared to current light scattering models. A method for characterising peaks on the coated paper surface is introduced in this work. The effect of the paper coating layer thickness and the surface peak height on lateral light scattering and printed dot size are shown.