• Lee, David L.
;
• Winslow, Alan T.

Abstract

Three image-quality metrics are evaluated: Hamerly's edge raggedness, or tangential edge profile; Granger and Cupery's subjective quality factor (SQF) derived from the second moment of the line spread function; and SQF derived from Gur and O'Donnell's reflectance transfer function. These metrics are but a handful of many in the literature. Standard office papers from North America and Europe representing a broad spectrum of what is commercially available were printed with a 300-dpi Hewlett-Packard Deskjet printer. An untrained panel of eight judges viewed text, in a variety of fonts, and a graphics target and assigned each print an integer score based on its overall quality. Analysis of the metrics revealed that Granger's SQF had the highest correlation with panel rank, and achieved a level of precision approaching single-judge error, that is, the ranking error made by an individual judge. While the other measures correlated in varying degrees, they were less precise. This paper reviews their theory, measurement, and performance.