Comparing measurement principles of three gloss meters and using them for measuring gloss on metallic embellishments produced by the printing industry

When measuring gloss, beneath the amount of reflected light that is reflected on a surface, also the light distribution that decides about the image forming capability of a surface has to be considered. In this study, three gloss meters (micro-TRI-gloss from Byk Gardner, IQ-S from Rhopoint, RA-532H Surface Reflectance Analyzer from Canon) that measure different aspects of gloss such as the amount of specular reflected light as well as the light distribution are used. The principles of the different aspects of gloss are explained and it is shown how the instruments measure these. Finally, measurement results taken from four different metallic embellishments from the printing industry are shown and discussed.