A pigment-based ink jet ink set and image-recording element combination is described,
wherein the ink jet image-recording element has a gloss value of at least 5 when
measured at 60, and wherein each ink in the ink set has a normalized differential
specular reflectance, NRS(X), of less than 1.25. NRS(X)
is defined as the maximum value within a set of NRS(Xn) values
in which each NRS(Xn) is the normalized specular reflectance
for a density patch of a printed test image. The printed test image consists of
a series of at least eleven density patches printed such that the ink laydown of
the patches increases incrementally, from no ink laydown to a maximum level generating
a density of at least 1.5; and wherein NRS(Xn) for each patch
is determined according to:
##EQU1##
where, over the visible spectral region between 390 nm and 720 nm for patch
Xn, RSmax(Xn) is the maximum, RSmin(Xn) is the minimum, and
RSmean(Xn) is the average specular reflectance.
