Claims
- 1. An ink jet ink set and image-recording element combination comprising:
A) an ink jet image-recording element having a gloss value of at least 5 when measured at 60°; B) a pigment based ink jet ink set comprising at least one pigment-based ink; wherein the normalized differential specular reflectance for each ink in the set, NΔRS(X), is less than 1.25 when calculated according to Equation 1: NΔRS(X)=[NΔRS(Xn)]max Equation 1 where X represents the ink, n is an integer associated with each density patch printed on the image-recording element as part of a test image, and [NΔRS(Xn)]max is the maximum value of the [NΔRS(Xn)] values that are calculated for the density patches printed using ink X; wherein the test image for each ink in the set consists of a series of at least ten density patches printed such that the ink laydown on the patches increases incrementally, from no ink laydown to a maximum level generating a density of at least 1.5; and wherein the normalized differential specular reflectance value for each patch, NΔRS(Xn), is determined according to Equation 2: 4N Δ RS(Xn)=[RSmax(Xn)-RSmin(Xn)]RSmean(Xn)Equation 2 where RSmax(Xn) is the maximum specular reflectance over the visible spectral region between 390 nm and 720 nm for patch Xn, RSmin(Xn) is the minimum specular reflectance over the visible spectral region between 390 nm and 720 nm for patch Xn, and RSmean(Xn) is the average specular reflectance over the visible spectral region between 390 nm and 720 nm for patch Xn.
- 2. The combination of claim 1 wherein the pigment-based ink is a cyan ink comprising a cyan pigment; a magenta ink comprising a magenta pigment; or a yellow ink comprising a yellow pigment.
- 3. The combination according to claim 2, wherein said cyan pigment comprises a metal phthalocyanine pigment or a bis(phthalocyanylalumino)tetraphenyldisiloxane pigment.
- 4. The combination according to claim 2, wherein said magenta pigment comprises a pigment selected from the group consisting of Pigment Red 122, Pigment Red 57:1, Pigment Red 123, Pigment Red 168, Pigment Red 184, Pigment Red 202 and Pigment Red 207.
- 5. The combination according to claim 2, wherein said yellow pigment comprises a pigment selected from the group consisting of Pigment Yellow 155, Pigment Yellow 74, Pigment Yellow 128, Pigment Yellow 13 and Pigment Yellow 93.
- 6. The combination according to claim 1, wherein the pigment-based ink comprises a pigment having a median particle size of less than 0.3 μm.
- 7. The combination according to claim 1, wherein the pigment-based ink comprises a pigment having a median particle size of less than 0.15 μm.
- 8. The combination according to claim 2, wherein said ink set further comprises a black ink comprising carbon black.
- 9. The combination according to claim 2, wherein said ink set further comprises a light cyan ink comprising a cyan pigment or a light magenta ink comprising a magenta pigment.
- 10. The combination according to claim 1, wherein the pigment-based ink comprises a water soluble polymer, a water reducible polymer, a water dispersible polymer, or mixtures thereof.
- 11. The combination according to claim 10, wherein said water soluble polymer, said water dispersible polymer, said water reducible polymer, or said mixtures thereof is present in an amount necessary to give a normalized differential specular reflectance for the pigment-based ink, NΔRS(X), of less than 1.25.
- 12. The combination according to claim 10, wherein the pigment-based ink comprises an addition polymer or a condensation polymer.
- 13. The combination according to claim 10, wherein the pigment-based ink comprises an addition polymer prepared from acrylic and/or styrenic monomers, a polyester, or a polyurethane.
- 14. The combination according to claim 13, wherein said acrylic monomer comprises a derivative of acrylic acid, an acrylate ester, an acrylamide, or an unsaturated anhydride or unsaturated imide monomer.
- 15. The combination according to claim 14, wherein said unsaturated anhydride or unsaturated imide monomer may be completely or partially hydrolyzed after polymerization to form the corresponding carboxylic acid or amide functionality.
- 16. The combination according to claim 12, wherein said styrenic monomer comprises a derivative of styrene, an α-alkylstyrene, a trans-β-alkylstyrene, an alkylstyrene, an alkoxystyrene, a halogenated styrene, or a vinyl naphthalene.
- 17. The combination according to claim 12, wherein said polyester is derived from isophthalic acid, sodium sulfoisophthalic acid, diethylene glycol, and 1,4-cyclohexanedimethanol.
- 18. The combination according to claim 1, wherein the pigment-based ink further comprises a non-volatile organic compound that does not penetrate the surface of the recording element.
- 19. The combination according to claim 18, wherein the non-volatile organic compound is present in an amount necessary to give a normalized differential specular reflectance for the pigment-based ink, NΔRS(X), of less than 1.25.
- 20. The combination according to claim 18, wherein said non-volatile organic compound is a glycol-containing oligomer.
- 21. The combination according to claim 10, wherein the pigment-based ink further comprises a pigment, and wherein the ratio of addition polymer or condensation polymer to pigment is at least 0.5.
- 22. The combination according to claim 10, wherein the pigment-based ink further comprises a pigment, and wherein the ratio of addition polymer or condensation polymer to pigment is at least 0.7.
- 23. The combination according to claim 1, wherein said image-recording element has a gloss value of at least 30 when measured at 60°.
- 24. The combination according to claim 1, wherein said image-recording element comprises an ink-receiving layer coated on a support.
- 25. The combination according to claim 1, wherein said image-recording element comprises a porous ink-receiving layer coated on a support.
- 26. The combination according to claim 1, wherein said image-recording element comprises an ink-receiving layer coated on a support, wherein said ink-receiving layer comprises at least 20 wt. % of particles and less than 50 wt. % of a polymeric binder based on the total dry weight of the ink-receiving layer.
- 27. The combination according to claim 26, wherein said particles comprise silica, alumina, titanium dioxide, clay, calcium carbonate, barium sulfate, zinc oxide, polymeric particles or mixtures thereof.
- 28. The combination according to claim 26, wherein said polymeric binder is gelatin, poly(vinyl alcohol), poly(vinyl pyrrolidinone), poly(vinyl acetate), a cellulose derivative, or derivatives thereof.
- 29. The combination according to claim 1, wherein image-recording element comprises a nonporous swellable ink-receiving layer coated on a support.
- 30. The combination according to claim 1, wherein said image-recording element comprises a nonporous swellable ink-receiving layer coated on a support wherein said nonporous swellable ink-receiving layer comprises gelatin, poly(vinyl alcohol), poly(vinyl pyrrolidinone), poly(vinyl acetate), a cellulose derivative, or derivatives thereof.
- 31. The combination according to claim 1, wherein said image-recording element comprises an ink-receiving layer coated on a support wherein said ink-receiving layer comprises a polymeric open-pore membrane.
- 32. The combination according to claim 1, wherein said image-recording element comprises an ink-receiving layer coated on a support wherein said support is paper or polyethylene-coated paper.
- 33. An ink jet printing method comprising the steps of:
A) providing an ink jet printer that is responsive to digital data signals; B) loading the printer with an image-recording element having a gloss value of at least 5 when measured at 60°; C) loading the printer with a pigment-based ink jet ink set comprising at least one pigment-based ink, wherein the normalized differential specular reflectance for each ink in the set, NΔRS(X), is less than 1.25 when calculated according to Equation 1: NΔRS(X)=[NΔRS(Xn)]max Equation 1 where X represents the ink, n is an integer associated with each density patch printed on the image-recording element as part of a test image, and [NΔRS(Xn)]max is the maximum value of the [NΔRS(Xn)] values that are calculated for the density patches printed using each ink in the set; wherein said test image for ink X consists of a series of at least ten density patches printed such that the ink laydown on the patches increases incrementally, from no ink laydown to a maximum level generating a density of at least 1.5; and wherein the normalized differential specular reflectance value for each patch, NΔRS(Xn), is determined according to: 5N Δ RS(Xn)=[RSmax(Xn)-RSmin(Xn)]RSmean(Xn)Equation 2 where RSmax(Xn) is the maximum specular reflectance over the visible spectral region between 390 nm and 720 nm for patch Xn, RSmin(Xn) is the minimum specular reflectance over the visible spectral region between 390 nm and 720 nm for patch Xn, and RSmean(Xn) is the average specular reflectance over the visible spectral region between 390 nm and 720 nm for patch Xn; and D) printing on the image-recording element, using the pigment-based ink jet ink set in response to the digital data signals.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] Reference is made to commonly assigned co-pending application Ser. No. ______ by Reem and Klingman (Docket 84671) filed of even date herewith entitled “Ink Set for Ink Jet Printing”; and application Ser. No. ______ by Reem and Klingman (Docket 84672) filed of even date herewith entitled “Ink Composition for Ink Jet Printing.” These copending applications are incorporated by reference herein for all that they contain.