total ink quantity (In French quantité totale d’encre) control factor in the process of printing ink transfer onto the substrate; can be calculated by determining the mass in g/m² per print sheet, in order to be able to calculate ink consumption.

total ink coverage, TIC (In French couverture d’encre totale) ink layer thickness resulting from the combined printing of all printing inks involved in the process; from the point of view of preprinting, defined as “maximum tone value sum”. In four-color printing, total ink coverage can theoretically amount to up to 4 ×100% = 400%, which would lead to unwanted delays in drying and associated printing problems, which can be avoided by using a modified ink…

toner (In French toner) powder-like printing ink (particle size 5 to 30 μm) in electrophotographic printing systems; contains pigments, synthetic resins (thermal fixers), electrostatically chargeable or magnetizable metal oxides and auxiliary substances to influence flow properties; dispersion of smaller particles (1 μm) possible as liquid toner for offset quality (Toyo Electro Ink for HP indigo press).

tone reproduction curve, TRC (In French courbe de reproduction tonale) 1) curve of a color separation file/print; relation of the screen values of a color separation print compared with the original data, whereby the average rise of this characteristic print curve is defined as the gradation value (gamma). 2) in digital image processing programs, the TRC, besides global color and tonal correction, is processed directly to create contrast and coloring effects. 3) in ICC profiles…

tone (value) (In French tonalité, valeur tonale) relative brightness degree, (i.e. with respect to a minimum (e.g. paper white) and a maximum (solid tone). The tone value can be reproduced without structure as a continuous tone (measurable as optical density) and with structure as a pixel tone or half tone (measurable as integral optical density) and also as color value (measurable as color density and/or chromaticity coordinates).

tolerance (In French tolérance) permissible deviation with respect to a specified objective; application for example in contract proof criteria.

time elapse meter (In French compteur d’heures de fonctionnement) numerical display on color matching booths and standard light luminaires; documents the aging of the light source for the purpose of the point in time of its necessary replacement.

TIFF, tagged image file format ISO file format for representing images as pixel graphics files; color channels: monochrome, RGB, CMYK, L*a*b*, colored grayscale images in DeviceN, N=2; 8-bit alpha channels; five loss-free compression methods. Derivatives: TIFF/IT describes an image file format tailored to the special features of medium-independent image processing and allows ICC profile embedding. TIFF-G4 (1-bit TIFF) as a separation output format for printing plate illustration is just as suitable for the real time…

TIC (In French couverture d’encre totale) see total ink coverage.

three-dimensional quality of color vision (In French trivariance visuelle, loi de Grassmann) property of color perception of being able to be described with 3 parameters each: Basic valences PDT, opponent color theory axes red-green/yellow-blue/black-white, primary valences RGB, standard valences XYZ, physical color mixing CMY, intuitive attributes hue, chromaticness, brightness.

three-color gray (In French gris trichrome) gray tone obtained when the three chromatic printing inks CMY are printed together. Since three-color gray reacts particularly sensitively to changes in the inking metering of a printing press, the gray balance is especially suitable for quality control in production printing and basically also in setting up. System Brunner invented the control strategy with gray balance priority, and optimized it with Instrument Flight (the full version is also available…

thixotropy rheological property of some inks which when delivered are highly viscous (e.g. UV inks or highly pigmented wide gamut inks) in that their viscosity can be lowered through an ink agitator in the ink duct or ink splitting in the inking unit, thus allowing a favorable processing consistency to be achieved; at the end of agitation the ink returns to its high initial viscosity.

thinner, dilutant (In French diluant) colorless additive which lowers the viscosity in order to improve runability (offset: oils ensure improved tack) or to allow it (flexo printing); thinners influence color rendering in print.

TFT, Thin Film Transistor (In French transistor couches minces) see active matrix LCD.

testers (In French appareils de contrôle) indispensable systems for testing the properties of printing inks as well as their interactions with substrates; most important suppliers: Fogra, Elcometer Instruments, IGT, IGT emus, PITSID, prüfbau, Tappi.

tertiary colors, pastel tones (In French couleurs tertiaires, tons pastel) color shades that are mixed from at least 3 primary colors or from primary and secondary colors, e.g. brown, skin tones etc.

temperature window temperature-dependent viscosity range in which an offset printing ink can be printed optimally; modern printing presses are equipped with an inking unit temperature control unit for this.

TCB, Techkon Color Book fixed value tables defined in CIELAB, a spectral luminance factor or spectral density for color libraries in Techkon spectrodensitometers (HKS color libraries preinstalled) with optimized color values incl. meta information (measuring mode, paper white coating etc.); can be generated itself in conjunction with the Techkon Connect software from measured color and density values. TCB corresponds to ISO 28178, which the color table format ANSI CGATS.17 must be converted to at the…

tagging, attaching, embedding (In French incorporé) in an ICC-conforming application, the linking of a device profile or working color space (always together with a color reproduction intention) with a graphic or document file; the profiles remain not only readable and interpretable, but also extractable using suitable tools (basICColor profile genie).

tag (In French balise) defined data field (“tag”) in the TIFF-like ICC Profile Format, which contains preformulated entries in accordance with the ICC profile format specification, e.g. the AtoB0Tag, which prescribes a color transformation between device and PCS using a look-up table.