Color Assessment of Paper-Based Color 3D Prints Using Layer-Specific Color 3D Test Charts

Color 3D printing is an important advancement in 3D printing for lifelike personalization, but color reproduction in paper-based color 3D printers suffers from accuracy issues. In this study, 5 color 3D test charts containing 6 thickness-increasing colored stairs with 13 specific colored bars were developed based on a thickness tunable printed layers design. At the same time, color differences and surface images of tested charts with specific layers were both captured under standard conditions. Results demonstrated that the chromatic aberrations and Mean-SSIM values of color bars showed a slight downward trend as the stair thickness increases, while the linear correlations were not obvious. Combined with color SSIM maps analysis, color samples with small differences in color quality can be clearly detected to analyze the color reproduction performance of paper-based color 3D printers. This research provides new ideas for the development of powerful color 3D test chart to check the color reproduction performance of paper-based 3D printers and predict paper-based color 3D printing.