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Increasingly competitive market environment pushes products and their packaging to meet functional and aesthetic requirements and expectations of consumers. Ergonomic features are one of the most important features for fulfilling consumer expectations and achieving a satisfying user experience. Drinking water in retail is commonly packaged in PET bottles ranging from 0.2 up to 6 litres. The weight of the 6-litre bottle is roughly 6 kilos which can produce strain on the hand while carried from the place of purchase to the place of usage. The goal of this research was to investigate the influence of water bottle handles and to determine how much does handle length, width, and curvature of the grip's edges affect the comfort of product use. This research presents objective experimental measurements and subjective judgment regarding ergonomic characteristics of the 5-6 litre water bottle handles, based on the variations in their shape and dimensions.

Smart packaging indicators are packaging elements which can identify the state of the packaging product. Wide range of different indicator types has been developed, which can be implemented in the smart packaging area. Indicators for food packaging have particular importance. Most often, food products are sensitive to the impact of heat, so they are used to monitor the heat effects of products on the packaging. Heat leads to significant changes when it comes to the aspect of food safety and quality, and usually food spoilage. Today, there are temperature indicators on the market that work on different principles of polymerization, through photosensitive organic pigments, or by changing the pH value on the diffusion-reaction. Considering the high cost and the complexity of such systems, the newly developed concept solution is based on using thermochromic inks. The paper aims to present the indicators knowledge base development in order to generate the necessary elements for printing indicators on the packaging. Also, the development of the web-based application concept for the process of printing thermochromic indicators, to quickly select the printing parameters for the appropriate type of material in achieving the desired temperature sensitivity of the indicators.

Chromatic materials are materials that change colour under the influence of external factors such as heat, light, solvents, pressure, electricity, friction, etc. Materials that change colour due to heat change are called thermochromic materials, and they are usually used for temperature indicators during the storage and transport of products packaged in heat-sensitive packaging such as frozen foods and pharmaceuticals. This paper presents the research on the colourimetric properties of yellow and blue thermochromic inks that can be used to produce temperature indicators of smart textile packaging. The activation temperature of these inks is 31 °C, so the measurements and printing of the samples were carried out under controlled conditions same for all samples. Samples are made up of four specific groups of textile materials, printed with screen printing technique, with two different screen mesh size. The paper presents the study of the parameters (colour tone, time, temperature, screen mash size and type of material) influence on the colourimetric properties of the temperature indicators. After heating the samples for 90 secs in the multi-purpose device, COLO DRYS53A at the temperature of 50 °C, the temperature of the sample was decreased to 24 °C. During the cooling process CIELAB values of thermochromic inks were measured for every 10 sec. The research has shown that the use of yellow thermochromic ink is not suitable for printing temperature indicators due to small colour differences during measurement in the cooling process, which has been shown on all types of materials and using all types of screen mesh sizes. The blue ink proved to be usable, but the packaging material type greatly influenced the change in the CIELAB values of the measured colour. The best results for the application of thermochromic blue indicator showed a sample that is 100% cotton material and has less surface mass, printed with screen mash size 54 l/cm. The procedure for determining the most suitable sample was based on the comparison of the colour difference increase during the 60-sec measurement obtained by the formula CIEDE2000. The results for this material have shown that the colour difference rise curve has the most similar trend relative to the reducing curve of the measured temperature in the given 60-sec measurements. So, the material is most suitable from the aspect of determining the packaging material or the packaged product temperature.

Eye tracking technology is used for design judgment in various industries. Packaging industry also utilizes this technology to gain insight in to consumer’s perception of the packaging and to gain in-depth knowledge about interaction on the consumer-packaging relation. Packaging design can be divided in to two main sections: graphic design and the form design. So far majority of eye tracking research in the packaging field has been oriented towards exploring influences of the graphic design. This paper aims to present study conducted by eye tracking concentrated on influence of packaging form the consumer’s judgment of the packaging characteristics. Results show relation between viewing times and judgment of the packaging according to specific characteristic.

Despite the constant development of screen readers and touch screens, tactile impressions are still an essential tool for communicating with a population of visually impaired and provide the opportunity for greater autonomy of these persons. The primary objective of this paper is to examine the usability of Inkjet technology for the production Braille text and tactile images - the possibility of forming an adequate relief using different number of UV varnish layers. Affirmative results obtained by interview contribute to the development of a new procedure for providing tactile image which is characterized by simplicity, minimal preparation time and the ability to create different “picture” from print to print.

This paper presents results of experiment conducted in order to determine influence of mesh density on surface roughness of textile materials printed with screen printing technology. Experiment was conducted to prove hypothesis that printing with different mesh density of the screen will cause changes in surface roughness parameters. Density of the screen mesh is usually used for determining volume of the ink transfer to the substrate. Volume of the transfer ink has a significant influence on changes in surface roughness of substrates. Surface structures of the textile substrates are filled with ink thus causing changes in surface roughness. For these experiment three different types of screen printing mesh were used with variable mesh density, 46, 54, as well as 90 threads per centimeter. Printing substrates used in the experiment was textile material composed of 100 % cotton. Inks used for printing were cyan, magenta, yellow, black, and green. All together 15 samples were made and their surface roughness was measured using TR 200 measuring unit. Mean value of 10 measurements is presented and further analyzed. The results showed a correlation between the type of screen printing mesh used and changes in surface roughness.

Textile materials printed with screen or digital printing during the exploitation can be under the influence of various environmental elements and treatments. This paper presents research regarding influence of rubbing treatment on changes of printed textile material characteristics which are obtained by inkjet printing technique. Research was done on textile materials composed of 100 % polyester on which the test chart was printed. Test chart consisted of four colour fields each 100% of one of process colours (CMYK). Printing machine Mimaki JV22-160 with J-eco Subly nano inks was used. Variable factor was number of ink layers applied, textile materials ware printed with one, two, three, four and five layers of ink. With increasing number of ink layers, we also increase K/S values. The analysis of rubbing treatment influence on prints was done according to ISO 105-X12 standard. Total of 20 samples were analyzed. Resistance of color to rubbing treatment (dry and wet staining) was determined by usage of the grey scale. .

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a series of hasty changes and spurred the digital transformation of various services. The pandemic itself has the greatest impact on the health system, which faces several challenges. Health-focused chatbots (“healthbots”) and apps have more and more important role in collecting quality information about health from credible sources and by doing so, they contribute to quality healthcare. Chatbots, which were used exclusively in connection with the pandemic, were used in more than thirty countries in the world. But there is limited evidence on how such healthbots are perceived in public. This paper is a contribution to this field of research – it deals with the analysis of media presentation of the healthbot Andrija, which was developed and used in Croatia during the Covid- 19 pandemic. Using the research matrix from the paper “Chatbot use cases in the Covid-19 public health response” by P. Amiri and E. Karahanna published in Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, we analysed the health chatbot used in Croatia, with the emphasis on its design features and also media presentation of the project, which was crucial in popularization of the healthbot. Because of the need for a quick response to crisis, this chatbot was developed very quickly. As such, design is relatively simple, using system-directed initiatives and it is focused on a narrow set of simple tasks. In conclusion, the ease of use, and fast information dissemination provide complementary functionality which can potentially reduce the pressure on health workers in situations of increased need for access to primary health care. The use of health chatbots is confronting with many obstacles both at the level of the social system (consumers’ acceptability) as well as the technical system (design and usability). More sophisticated chatbot designs and opportunities for synergies with machine learning should be explored in the future in combination with more developed and sophisticated methods of media presentation.

Today, the packaging industry is increasingly transforming, especially in terms of development of new sustainable materials and smart solutions in order to attract customers when choosing products, and to be competitive in the market. The use of colour changing packaging can give added value to the product since this kind of packaging can in that way interact with the consumer and provide a massage upon the product. During its lifecycle, the packaging can be exposed to the influence of various agents, for example the spilling of beverages over the printed labels. For this reason, the prints need to be resistant to certain agents, in this case, ethanol. In the end, the spill of ethanol can cause visual alterations of the print due to the colourants or the substrate itself not being resistant to the particular agent. Thermochromic inks are widely used as indicators for beverage packaging which can often be exposed to different concentrations of alcohol that may affect the functionality of that same indicator. Thermochromic inks differ in their composition from classic printing inks, which in the end results in lower stability when exposed to UV radiation and various chemicals. Thus, this study explores the influence of ethanol on the functionality of TC prints on labels. Different label papers were printed with one TC ink, with an activation temperature of 12°C. The samples were exposed to different concentrations of ethanol (8%, 12%, 25%, 35%, 42% and 96%) to simulate the real conditions in which it is possible to spill different alcoholic beverages on the thermochromic print on the packaging of an alcoholic product. It can be concluded that alcohol affects the stability of microcapsules even in the smallest concentrations because the largest changes of colour were observed at low temperature, while smaller colour changes determined at 23 ° C indicate that the classic process ink is more stable to the influence of alcohol. The results of this test showed that the chemical stability of the thermochromic print depends on both, the printing substrate and the external conditions to which the print is exposed. The results show that the proper choice of printing substrate can improve the stability of the thermochromic print in reaction with ethanol.

Designers today, through the creation of media content, do not only create a media construct, but they also participate in the creation of social values, norms, and common patterns of communication. When reading books, manuals and design instructions, a design practitioner often encounters the term "good design". If we take the “good design” concept of industrial designer Dieter Rams, then the term will be describing the product that is useful and understandable, innovative, aesthetic, unobtrusive, honest, long-lasting, thorough to the last detail, environmentally friendly, and involves as little design as possible. His principles of "good design" can be applied to the field of media design, applications, user interfaces and so on. Or, if we change the paradigm towards the ethics, is “good design” design which is not only aesthetically pleasing but also that strives to do good - to be socially responsible in order to improve the social environment? This approach is the basic of this article. The basis and starting point for the discussion was the article "Redefining design ethics" by Phil McCollam published in Design and Culture, 6: 3, 2014. The author argues that designers have a legal obligation to be aware of and to follow accessibility laws and standards, but also, more broadly, they have an ethical obligation to focus on the needs of the people who will use their designs, even when the law does not explicitly require it of them. Furthermore, he says that future professionals must be challenged to develop solutions that are human-centric. The research is based on a questionnaire and discussions with the students of graphic design. Therefore, the goal of this research is to explore the existence of awareness of the ethical and social role of design in contemporary society through individual awareness of students.

Today, more than ever, sustainability is at its highest peak of daily interest for all business sectors, especially involving label and packaging industries. Usage of paper products made from alternative fiber sources is a very important topic that directly supports circular economy in everyday life. Although paper products should be recycled or re-used as secondary source of raw - material, a vast volume of products end their life at landfill, especially still in our region, causing excessive accumulation in the environment. For the purpose of this research, fluorescence intensity was measured on three different biodegraded pressure sensitive label material samples (PSL), made from agro-industrial and postconsumer waste. PSL materials utilized in this research are widely used for labelling various products, for example, wine, luxury products, food etc. and are compiled of 3 parts: facestock, adhesive and liner. PSL materials are enriched with optical brighteners to give the final product the desired optical properties. Fluorescence spectroscopy is a direct measure of optical brightener concentration within the substrate. Biodegradation was performed by usage of soil burial test under aerobic conditions. Laboratory soil burial experiments were conducted at room temperature (25±2°C) by placing the unprinted label paper substrates; facestock and adhesive (delaminated from the liner) horizontally in field soils in 2L laboratory glass containers, orientated adhesive down. The water content of the soil was adjusted to 40 % of its maximum water retention capacity. Substrates were buried for a period of 2, 4, 7, 10 and 13 days. Sample’s fluorescence intensity was measured before and after incubation in the soil containers. The samples were dug out after designated time, rinsed with distilled water to remove soil particles from the surface, air dried and measured. Fluorescence intensity was measured by using Ocean Optics USB2000+ spectrometer using a 30 mm wide integrating sphere under (8:di) measuring geometry with the addition of LSM Series LED light source at 365 nm. LED light source is operated via a smart controller during the measurement. A constant current of 0.140 A was kept stable in order to maintain a constant excitation light source with the aim to excite fluorescence whitening agents within the samples. As previously research shows the presence of optical brighteners in composition of fibre based PSL, fluorescence spectroscopy of biodegraded samples indicates decomposition of optical brighteners.

Pressure sensitive labels (PSL) are a growing part of graphic industry. In the past, their design and application were rather limited to basic packaging and product information while currently labels are receiving more and more attention because they are customer's first contact with a product. PSL composition includes release liner, adhesive and facestock. Facestock can be considered as the most important part of the label since its properties determine the final label appearance. Nowadays, facestock material can be both paper and filmic. Therefore, it is necessary to perform a comprehensive characterization of pressure sensitive labels facestock in order to investigate the future impact of optical dot gain on the print. Point spread function is a measure of scattering and absorption of light in the given substrate. It carries information regarding paper composition and its future behaviour in term of optical dot gain. In the study, seven different facestock substrates were examined, two made from biogenic polyethylene, and five paper based PSL facestocks, three of which are made from 15% agro industrial waste by-products (barley, citrus and grape). Point spread function of the substrates were obtained by projecting collimated red laser light source on the facestock of pressure sensitive labels. Although the laser light used in this experiment was characterized by a narrow beam width of 0.5 mm and low divergence

Cultural heritage objects are precious witnesses of the past, so our mission is not only to preserve them for future generations, but also make them available or open to the public. Among most fragile historic materials are paper-based materials. They are susceptible to various forms of damage and deterioration, and their preservation presents a challenging task for conservators. In recent years, the use of advanced materials with unique properties has been growing at an increasing rate, even in the traditionally slow-changing cultural heritage sector. This study models how historic paper would be affected by application of multiple coating layers containing different quantities of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs). In our study, a 4 % CNCs aqueous suspension was used to treat the samples. In order to form a uniform layer, bar-coating method was used, and in addition, a specific layer thickness was formed in both single and multiple passes. The prepared samples were analysed for their optical properties (colour coordinates, yellowness, opacity, gloss), physical properties (Taber stiffness, weight, thickness) and surface properties (roughness). An increase of wet film deposit thickness (single layer applications) resulted in an increase of paper thickness, grammage, gloss, opacity, yellowness, the ΔE value and Taber stiffness, while its average surface roughness decreased. Multi-layer applications have gradually decreased paper thickness, while Taber stiffness remained unchanged.

Compared to papers derived from virgin fibres, recycled papers possess somewhat limited optical, strength and printing properties. Strength properties are usually increased by blending recycled fibres with virgin fibres in pulp for paper production, while optical and printing properties are often improved by coating after the paper is being manufactured. In this study, the usability of virgin fibres derived from straw as the agricultural residue of wheat, barley and triticale crops for paper production was evaluated based on the stability of prints on laboratory-made paper. For that purpose, in laboratory conditions, the papers with the addition of straw pulp in the pulp of recycled fibres were formed and prior to printing they were coated with TiO2-based coating. Process inks, in full-tone, were applied on coated straw-containing papers by digital printing process. Optical properties of digital prints upon accelerated ageing were evaluated based on Euclidean colour difference calculated from spectrophotometric values measured on black and magenta prints before and after 48 h and 96 h of ageing. The obtained results were compared with those provided by printing substrates made only from recycled fibres with and without TiO2-based coating. It was observed that TiO2-based coating has no influence on the stability of black digital prints, while each layer of TiO2-based coating reduces deviations in magenta colour upon ageing.

Many advantages and applications of 2D codes and functional printing inks have led to the development of Smart Tags. Interactive 2D codes provide the ability to store a large number of various information on a relatively small area and are easy to use. Combined with temperature sensitive thermochromic inks, 2D codes can provide a possibility for making Smart Tags, which could be used in smart packaging applications. In this study, Smart Tag is a temperature – dependent system sensitive to surrounding temperature, which provides information in the form of 2D codes and hidden messages. By combining the information provided by the Smart Tag, it is possible to monitor the temperature conditions of a particular product, create anti – counterfeit elements, and high – temperature warning systems. In this paper, 2D codes will be printed using thermochromic (TC) inks with different activation temperatures (TA) in screen printing technique. Printed 2D codes will be exposed to the defined temperature range around TA, to determine readability of the codes by mobile code scanning. Colorimetric properties of TC inks will also be measured within the defined temperature range. The aim of this paper is to determine which temperature range of a particular TC ink provides readability of 2D codes. The results could help in design and development of 2D code - Smart Tags using functional inks. These kinds of Smart Tags could provide higher level of consumer protection, temperature monitoring of pharmaceutical and cosmetics products, as well as burn – hazard warning systems.

Contrary to the negative predictions, the graphic arts industry keeps continuing its growth. The modern world is transferring information through digital platforms leading to decrease of the serial publications on paper (newspaper, magazines etc). But on the other hand, packaging industry is increasing its revenue by high numbers. In the same way as for the whole industry, many predicted that paper use will also decrease, as for a long period of time (still partly present) paper was thought of as being killer of trees. Today, along with new findings, paper is becoming more popular with EU Commission banning single use plastics. Paper as a substrate is becoming popular in packaging industry, mainly due to being suitable for both organic and material recycling. However, due to lack of some functional properties, materials are often coated. Coating as a process includes covering of a surface by another substance. The coatings processes are present in various industries and are intended to enhance properties of the base materials. In the graphic industry the coating process is often called varnishing, due to the resins used as a coating material. Varnishing is used to improve rub resistance and provide varnished material with special effects (combination of gloss and matte surfaces). Applicability and functionality of the coatings is achieved using various materials, among which are nano-engineered materials. Results of various researchers show benefits of introducing nanocomposites in the packaging industry by improving prints’ resistance to degradation by UV irradiation, improving barrier to water vapour and enabling packaging surface to inhibit microbes’ growth. To conclude, coatings development and application plays a significant role in the material development, as it can provide common materials with improved properties, as well as enhanced aesthetics. At the same time, application of coatings could present some obstacles in both materials and organic recycling, and for that reason development of coatings should include evaluation of recyclability of the coated product as well as the characterization of coating’s functionality.

Bending stiffness of corrugated cardboard is a structural property that gives rigidity and strength. It depends on macroscopic structure of cardboard, different layers and thickness. The structure of corrugated cardboard used for secondary Shelf Ready Packaging (SRP) is weakened by perforations. Perforations serve as separation line used for converting SRP into the shelf-ready tray. The aim of this paper is to analyse the change of corrugated cardboard bending stiffness under the influence of perforations. The focus is on determining which of the explanatory variables affect the corrugated cardboard bending stiffness the most. The explanatory variables are: Type of perforation, Angle of perforation position and Quality of perforated corrugated cardboard. They are used to explain the variability in a measured property. The specimens with and without perforations were prepared using die cutter with machine-made knives. Three types of perforations (labelled: 1/1, 2/1 and 3/1 with the differences in the ratio of cut to uncut part) were positioned in five defined angles (0°, 20°, 45°, 70°, and 90°, where 0° represents Machine Direction, MD) and tested on three different quality of three-layer Eflute corrugated cardboard. Three-point bending tests were carried out using Instron tensile tester in order to observe the behavior of perforated specimens. Statistical analysis was performed to quantify the effect of perforation variables on the change of corrugated cardboard bending stiffness. The analysis showed that the explanatory variable Angle of perforation position was the most influential and provided the most significant information to explain the variability on the loss of corrugated cardboard bending stiffness. The trend in the measured values between all qualities of corrugated cardboard was obvious: the values decrease as the angle of perforation position increases; therefore, the highest values were for angle 0° and the lowest for angle 90°. A quantitative but not qualitative interaction between Quality and Perforation variables appeared. Hence, the “non-perforation – perforation” relationship was qualitatively always the same, although numerically it appeared somewhat different at different cardboard quality. The lowest loss of bending stiffness in the measured values was observed for the perforation type with the same ratio of cut and uncut part (labelled 1/1).

Text legibility is an important and influential aspect of multimedia, not only on usual multimedia reading devices (displays, tablets, and mobile phones) but also in three-dimensional virtual environments (VE). In VEs, text can be used for many purposes in accordance with the category of experience (gaming, architectural visualization, exhibition, education). Font type used can deteriorate the VE experience if the user has to strain his eyes so that he may correctly read what has been written. The purpose of this research is to examine different fonts in order to determine which properties of a typeface are more suitable for VE. Four different fonts have been tested in 10 font sizes at three viewing distances (5, 10, and 15 meters). Times New Roman as a representative of serif fonts, Helvetica as a non-serif font, Caveat as a representative of handwritten fonts, and Roboto as a font for digital use, initially developed for the Android operating system. Different typographic characteristics of fonts significantly affect readability in VE. Additionally, was explored how the color of the text and the background color influence text readability in 20 combinations. It is known that the relationship between text color and background color affects readability. Since VR is a relatively new medium, we wanted to determine which relationship between colors of text and background is the best and whether it follows some rules present on the web. The colors of the text were black and white, and the colors of the background were black, white and gray, red, green, pastel green, blue, pastel blue, yellow, pastel orange, and pastel pink. Results regarding text color/background color have shown that most participants preferred black text on white background, black text on a gray background, and white text on a pastel orange background. On the contrary, participants rated white text on a yellow background as the least preferable combination, accompanied by white text on a pastel green background.

Previous studies have shown that packaging design can influence people’s expectations regarding product attributes. This study explored the role of packaging visual design in presenting a non-visual attribute (i.e. odor) by investigating consumers’ responses to various graphic designs displayed on perfume packaging. Particularly, the aim was to examine how different visual elements (such as patterns, photographs and illustrations) influence product choices, preferences and odor associations. 136 people participated in the study, with approximately equal numbers of males and females. They were presented with 10 packaging samples. The samples were of the same shape and size but with different visual elements. The results of the experiment confirmed that participants associated highly recognizable objects with their specific odors. For example, a lemon pattern was paired with a fresh smell, and an image of a rose was paired with a floral smell. On the other hand, when packaging presented odor-neutral objects, the participants’ responses were not uniform. The design which was associated with the largest range of smells was the one with a photograph of a human body, which was paired with three different perfume types (namely, floral, woody and oriental). When data were split by gender, the results suggested that men had a preference for regular and sharp visual shapes. Another relevant finding is that perception of perfume packaging can be influenced by age. Young participants mostly preferred abstract visual shapes for perfume presentations. The results of the choice task indicated that young participants were more sensitive to variations in design than mature participants. Furthermore, they associated most of the packaging designs with more than one type of smell. The findings can be useful for successful perfume packaging design, especially when young consumers are the main target audience.

Surface phenomena in printing are extremely important for understanding and optimizing the interaction of materials involved in the process of graphic reproduction. In order to protect absorbent printing substrates from moisture penetration, to strengthen mechanical properties or to ensure better adhesion of the printing ink to the substrate, the substrates are often coated with protective coatings (primers) before printing. The adhesion parameters between the coating and the printing ink then become extremely important for assessing the durability, but also the quality of the print. In this research, biodegradable primers (polycaprolactone and polylactic acid) were applied on a board substrate with the primary aim of reducing the permeability to water vapour in combination with printed ink layers. Two types of water-based screen printing inks were printed on the primed substrates: ink prepared using the transparent base, and the ink prepared using the opaque white base. Two meshes with different screen count were used (32 l/cm and 60 l/cm). The research focused on the possibility of reducing the water vapour transmission rate using the inks and biodegradable primers, and at the same time analysing the interaction of biodegradable primers and printing inks by determining the surface and interfacial properties in the "printing substrate-primer-printing ink" system. The results of the research have contributed to the optimization of the screen-print quality on the primed absorbent and porous substrates.

Internet users are bombarded every day with various ads, and they try to block them in all possible ways. If they do not block them, they usually pay little attention to them. Therefore, ads need to be creative and provide as much relevant information as possible about the advertised product or service at a glance in order to lead to conversions. For this purpose, the benefits of infographics can be used very well, in addition to dynamic forms of ads that consist of audio and video elements, especially in a responsive web environment. This type of advertising is also great for posting on social media, where the flow of information and responses is very fast. Infographics actually represent a visual presentation of information through a combination of typography, symbols, pictograms, shapes, and colours and are used to present complex information quickly and clearly. The use of infographics as one of the multimedia elements in digital advertising contributes to the optimization of advertising content, which also contributes to SEO optimization. To investigate the extent to which infographics in digital advertising can contribute to the optimization of advertising content in a responsive web environment, A/B testing of multimedia advertising content presented through infographics and content that contained all relevant information about the advertiser and was not presented in the form of an infographic was conducted on two types of screens. The A/B testing model itself provides the opportunity to maximize conversion rates, but it also provides a significant increase in knowledge about how advertising content is presented. It can also establish a set of optimized practices for multimedia elements of ad content. The proposed testing model provides the perfect opportunity to properly test your ad before launch. The same analogy can be applied to other multimedia elements used to create ads, such as photos, animations, colours, content management system elements, etc. The obtained results provide valuable information about infographics possibilities in advertising content optimization in a responsive web environment because they load faster, are suitable for small screens, and do not tire users.

Although the primary role of packaging is to protect its content, it also acts as the carrier of both relevant information and visual identity. To enhance its properties, packaging materials are often coated with material which could provide barrier against chemicals, atmospheric conditions, or electromagnetic radiation. This paper focuses on the change of surface properties, i.e., wetting of a coated cardboard surface when packaging material is exposed to light induced accelerated ageing. Prepared printed cardboard was coated with nanocomposites composed of commercial water-based varnish and defined mass concentration of nanosized TiO2. The prepared samples were subjected to accelerated ageing in a light chamber equipped with Xenon lamp. The characterization of the samples included determining contact angles with liquids of known surface tension and calculating surface free energy, determining water vapour transfer rate and performing burst resistance tests (Mullen burst test). It can be concluded that the UV radiation influenced the cardboard substrate and varnished samples where AcA made some changes in the polar component due to forming of new oxidation products, which are less polar from its -OH group. However, with the introduction of nanoparticles, the UV influence was lowered in terms of surface parameters. The smallest TiO2 weight ratio (0.25%) lowers the WVTR by 56%. Moreover, with increase of TiO2 nanoparticles weight ratio, water permeability decreases significantly where the 0.5% TI/NC provided the best result (decrease of63%). Regarding the mechanical properties, although bursting strength of samples coated with nanocomposites is higher than the one coated by WB, there is no visible dependence between mechanical properties and weight ratio of nanoparticles. This research showed that addition of TiO2 nanoparticles will improve commercial varnish and will increase protection against UV radiation in terms of adhesion to the substrate and water vapour barrier.

The UV radiation causes inks to fade. The ink fading will lead to the degradation of the visual appearance of printed imprints making them less attractive to the user. To deal with this that phenomenon, one of the solutions is to create a coating that could challenge these issues. In order to create efficient protective coating against UV induced degradation, nano scaled titanium dioxide (TiO2) wasl added to the commercial water-based varnish. To determine influence of the amount of TiO2, was homogenized in various weight ratios. The prepared nanocomposites were applied onto offset (lithography) prints made in accordance with Fogra PSO, i.e. ISO 12647-2:2013 on gloss coated paperboard. The samples have been subjected to artificial UV induced aging for 30 hours. The protective properties of the nanocomposite TiO2 coating was determined by calculating colorimetric and densitometric change on full tone and determining tone value change of half tones. The results showed that the prepared nanocomposite coating has relatively little effect on the printed colour of the samples. However, some coating compositions exceed the allowed tolerance ΔEab> 5, however in those cases the initial colorimetric value of WB (ΔEab) was close to the FOGRA PSO border value. The coatings with TiO2 will increase resistance to accelerated ageing on full and halftone. To conclude, this research has provided the new perspective on modulation possibilities of commercially available varnishes in order to cope a designated problematics and downsides of coatings which was, in this case, UV induced fading and degradation of visual appearance. The further research should investigate the applicability of this kind of modulated varnish in other coating techniques as well the use of other kind of nano sized compounds.

Traditional papermaking is based on the use of an aqueous suspension consisting of cellulose fibres obtained by processing wood, non-wood plants or waste paper. With growing environmental concerns regarding deforestation and CO2 production, the paper industry has been always looking for new sources of non-wood pulp that would produce papers of similar quality to those made from wood pulp. Cereal straw from wheat, barley or triticale crops that remains on fields as a residue after grain harvesting has proven to be a good substitute for virgin wood fibres needed in the production of recycled paper. In this study, the quality of printed text on recycled paper with added straw pulp is evaluated mainly based on the line and edge characteristics of the printed letters. For this purpose, three types of laboratory paper substrates were first prepared using recycled wood pulp with the addition of 30% wheat, barley, or triticale straw pulp. The same letter pattern was printed with black ink on each paper substrate at a standard size of 12 pt with two common typefaces: Arial and Times New Roman. The quality of the printed letters was assessed through the measured print quality parameters such as blurriness, raggedness, fill and contrast. The resulting measurements were compared with the results obtained on the reference and control samples made exclusively from recycled wood pulp as a substrate from laboratory and commercial production. In terms of fill and contrast values, the uniformity of lines printed on the recycled papers with added straw pulp is the same or very similar to the reference and control papers. Letters printed in Arial (sans-serif) typeface show slightly better reproduction quality than letters printed in Times New Roman (serif) typeface. The measured parameters blurriness and raggedness of all laboratory-made paper substrates (with and without straw pulp) had similar values between 0.17 mm and 0.20 mm, resulting in a very similar reproduction quality compared to the reference paper substrate.

Coating the substrate as a method of surface finishing is very common in the printing industry. It is used to improve the properties of the final printed paper substrate and also as a pre- treatment method before applying the printing ink. Such pre-treatment is primarily used to modify the surface tension of a substrate, which primarily aims to achieve higher print quality and better ink adhesion. In this paper, the effect of the HP Indigo WS 6800 print press on the paper substrate was tested with a variation of corona power (0 W, 450 W, and 950 W) and the application of the different thicknesses of primer intended for working with ElectroInk inks (0 g/m2, 0, 5 g/m2 and 1 g/m2). To determine their influence on achromatic reproduction, an image analysis is carried out to determine the diameter of the black halftone elements (Personal PIAS), which could also diagnose the halftone shapes (deformation of the circle of black print dots). Black separation without corona treatment produces the smallest, but also the most deformed halftone elements, while the optimum (highest print dot) is achieved by a corona voltage of 450 W. The most effective black print is achieved by applying a primer of 0, 5 g/m2.