Influencing factors and error analysis for specular gloss measurement

Specular gloss has been widely used to characterize the ability of a surface to reflect light specularly. Specular gloss is theoretically related to the physical properties of a surface, such as roughness, directionality and uniformity. Specular gloss, mainly determined by incident angle and refractive index of a surface, is a relative measurement quantity. Specular gloss is usually measured by a glossmeter. The topographical and optical properties of a surface have been analyzed on how to affect the measurements. The experiment results indicate that a less rough/flatter, more isotropic and more uniform surface will result in a more accurate measurement value. Therefore, physical properties of a surface must be carefully inspected before the specular gloss measurement in order to acquire a satisfied result.