This Technical Report describes a laboratory method, using a printability tester, for the preparation of specimens in order to evaluate the tendency of a particular ink, substrate and printing procedure to produce chemical ghosting in sheet-fed offset lithography on coated papers or foils.

A test procedure to induce ghosting using these specimens is also included.

The presence of chemical ghosting is determined by visual evaluation of test images. Chemical ghosting can appear either as reverse-side yellowing on single-side and perfect printing, or as image-wise gloss variations in perfect printing. This method applies only to oxidative drying inks on coated papers or foils and it evaluates a particular ink and substrate combination.