Reference
A short technical glossary for print acceptance and defect review. Each term: what it is, how it looks on the sheet, where the cause usually sits, and how it is confirmed by measurement rather than by eye.
Regular light or dark stripes across the print direction.
Symptom on the print: Visible stripes spaced to the printhead height or media-feed step.
How it is measured: Densitometer/spectro on a control fill, measuring stripe pitch and checking media feed.
Mist of fine ink droplets landing beside the intended print area.
Symptom on the print: Fuzzy edges, haze and dirt around elements, loss of edge sharpness.
How it is measured: Loupe/microscope at the edge, checking head gap, carriage speed and vacuum/static.
Droplet veering off its intended landing point on the media.
Symptom on the print: Shifted or wandering lines, ragged thin elements, localized banding.
How it is measured: Line test target, checking head gap, static charge and nozzle condition.
Grainy texture from stochastic screening or too few print passes.
Symptom on the print: Visible grain in smooth gradients and light tones, especially up close.
How it is measured: Comparing RIP quality modes against a reference gradient and pass count.
One or more nozzles not firing (clog / air / electronics).
Symptom on the print: Thin unprinted lines along the print direction, local color shift.
How it is measured: Nozzle-check test, mapping the affected row, re-check after purge.
Parasitic pattern from overlapping screens or repeating structures.
Symptom on the print: Wavy or grid-like pattern that is not in the source artwork.
How it is measured: Inspecting the source image, screen angles/frequency and RIP scaling.
Insufficient UV ink polymerization: the layer is not fully cured.
Symptom on the print: Tackiness, odor, smearing, poor adhesion and abrasion resistance.
How it is measured: Tape-test, rub/solvent test, checking lamp power and carriage speed.
Excess UV dose: over-hardened, brittle or yellowed ink layer.
Symptom on the print: Cracking on flex, yellowing, loss of adhesion on flexible media.
How it is measured: Flex/crease test, deltaE on white/light tones, UV-lamp dose check.
Ink-to-substrate bond, verified by a standard adhesive-tape test.
Symptom on the print: Ink lifts with the tape, peels on flex or under abrasion.
How it is measured: Cross-cut + tape-test (ISO 2409 / ASTM), scoring % of removed ink.
Numeric measure of color difference between reference and print.
Symptom on the print: Visible brand-color mismatch or drift between runs/machines.
How it is measured: Spectrophotometer on patches, computing dE2000/dE76 vs the target.
CMY ratio that yields neutral gray with no color cast.
Symptom on the print: Grays and neutrals shift toward a warm or cold tint.
How it is measured: Measuring a gray scale with spectro, keeping a*/b* near zero.
Per-channel ink-output calibration done before profiling.
Symptom on the print: Plugged shadows, uneven tonal ramps, unstable color.
How it is measured: Printing and measuring per-channel tone ramps, checking ink limit.
Tone value increase: a dot prints darker than specified in the file.
Symptom on the print: Midtones darken, shadows plug, midtone detail is lost.
How it is measured: Measuring a tone scale with spectro, actual vs nominal per channel.
Replacing part of CMY with black (GCR) and removing ink under black (UCR).
Symptom on the print: Unstable neutrals, excess ink, poor drying at high total area coverage.
How it is measured: Inspecting the file/profile separation, checking TAC and black amount.
Printing a top object over the one below without knockout.
Symptom on the print: Disappearing or showing-through text, unexpected color mixing.
How it is measured: Checking overprint preview in prepress and PDF separations.
Small overlap of adjacent colors that hides registration gaps.
Symptom on the print: White hairlines/gaps at color boundaries on slight misregistration.
How it is measured: Checking trap width in the file, inspecting registration under a loupe.
Deep black built from K plus CMY support instead of plain 100K.
Symptom on the print: Washed-out black (K only) or ink excess and mottling (if overdone).
How it is measured: Measuring black density with spectro, checking the rich-black TAC recipe.
Number of carriage passes used to lay down one image band.
Symptom on the print: Too few — grain and banding; too many — slow and over-wetting risk.
How it is measured: Comparing modes on a reference: grain, banding, deltaE and speed.
Droplet volume (incl. variable greyscale) driving detail and density.
Symptom on the print: Coarse highlights with large drops, density loss with too-small drops.
How it is measured: Printing highlight patches and fine text, loupe check vs the profile.
White-ink layer under/over color on clear or colored substrates.
Symptom on the print: Color show-through, uneven base, halo at the white-ink edge.
How it is measured: Checking white choke, opacity/density and layer order in the RIP.
Gradual color shift over time, between runs or between machines.
Symptom on the print: Start and end of a run differ; a reprint will not match the reference.
How it is measured: Regular deltaE control on a control strip with a measurement log.
Next step
Send the file, a print sample, the material and RIP settings — diagnosis will be evidence-based, not generic advice.
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