As an answer to the ever increasing demand for color printing, paper manufacturers have developed new grade of papers that can equal the quality of the commercially used printing papers (offset or rotogravure printing papers). These new developed printing papers shows the same smoothness, brightness and opacity that are just perfect for any type of printing process. Plus with the continuous increase in the market share of ink jets and the equally high demand for quality ink jet printing especially on uncoated or lightly size-press-treated paper makes it further practical to develop new kinds of paper. The latest ideal uncoated paper available in the market that is applicable to any type of digital printing is wood-free, alkaline, evenly bright and blue-white in shade, smooth, solid, opaque, sturdy and clean meaning it is free from any surface fragments as well as slitter dust. However, these qualities are very hard to maintain since most printing methods make use of various procedures that adversely affect quality of the printing paper. Nevertheless, proper knowledge on process control as well as filter choice is needed in order to maintain the quality of the paper. Maintaining the quality of the paper has significant effect on the print output. Just take for example the blue-white brightness which is important especially in print projects that require for some part of the page to be left unprinted and noticeable like for text and graphics. The blue-white brightness is achieved by adding an optical brightener which is used as a size press additive to make the finished product appear as blue-white and bright. In terms of the alkaline used in printing papers, its main function is for internal sizing and as retention aids. The alkyl succinic anhydride and microparticle retention aids have significantly increase market share especially in the use of fillers and secondary fibers. However, with the growing number of paper machines that has increasing speed, maximizing filler retention and paper formation has become the common problem of papermakers. And to resolve this problem they have opted to use microparticle retention aids instead. Lastly, it is not only the papers that should be considered, the printer should also be cleaned since dust and debris often times build up inside the printer which interferes with its performance. A clean printer plus a very clean paper are two factors that may help ensure quality print outputs.
