Professor Suk co-authored an article entitled as “Color Tolerance Prediction for Recycled Paper Based on Consumers’ Awareness, Color Research and Application” published in Color Research and Application. The study examines whether consumers are more tolerant with chromaticness of white paper when they are aware of using recycled paper, and proves that it is so. It provides evidence that a clear communication about the recycled status with consumers is essential to increase their satisfaction. Also, this study was done in an extension of her previous domestic study published in the Journal of Korean Society of Color Studies.

Abstract

Consumers’ tolerance of the color of recycled paper was evaluated by the visual assessment of such paper by 30 Japanese university students. The assessment  was performed to measure color tolerance using 266 color samples in eight conditions specifying the situation of paper as (1) ‘‘either paper is recycled or not  recycled,’’ (2) ‘‘whether you will buy/use,’’ and (3) ‘‘use for office paper or for workbook paper.’’ The responses of the subjects were sorted out quantitatively in terms of the colorimetric values of color samples and then correlated with International Organization for Standardization (ISO) brightness and CIE whiteness. Both the ISO brightness and CIE whiteness were found to be dependent on hue factors and also to be restricted for use in direct representation of the consumers’ responses to paper quality. Since the consumers’ evaluation of paper quality is due to visual whiteness, we propose a new equation to predict the consumers’ tolerance of paper color, in which the equation contains two factors concerning the color distance from the white point and the hue impact. The new tolerance equation was confirmed to predict the consumers’ tolerance successfully, particularly when the consumers are aware that the paper is recycled.

Full text in Color Research and Application