Ideal Whiteness Pt. 1

Ideal Whiteness, Pt. 1

Have you ever wondered how we see colour? Or why paper is white? Well we’re obsessed by answering questions like this and in this first part of a series we'll start by explaining a few key things.

In the paper industry, as you can imagine, getting your white right is a pretty big deal. We think colour is beautiful and the way people see it is fascinating. We also know how important it is for our customers to have paper that delivers every time, so that the brilliant colours of life

can be reproduced in print. Mondi Color Copy is renowned for the optimal whiteness of its paper. But how do we get our white just right? And does brighter really mean better when it comes to paper?

Most people think that with white paper, it’s a case of the brighter the better. But this isn’t actually true. Whiteness is a simple metric that everyone understands. Most people are probably used to it being a measure of quality because historically, paper might not have been as white as everyone wanted. Despite this common misconception, brightness is not actually the best measure of whiteness when it comes to paper.

In the paper industry there are 3 different factors when talking about whiteness…

Whiteness
A measurement of light reflectance across all wavelengths of light comprising the full visible spectrum (you'll learn more about this in part two)

Brightness
A measurement of light reflectance of a specific wavelength of blue light. (Simply put, it’s a narrower measurement of light reflectance than whiteness)

Shade
A measurement of the colour of the paper. It is defined using a universally accepted colour measurement model – the CIELAB model.

Now that we've got the basics covered, the second part of this series will cover how we perceive colours and how that relates to the whiteness of papers.

In the meantime, why don't you have a look around or order a sample folder?

Click here to read part two and here to read part three of this series.

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