A method for printing with a device capable of printing white ink, to create an image, as a printing color comprising: computing a radiance efficiency factor, k, that is the ratio of the lightness of a target media to the lightness of a reference media; for each pixel: computing, using k, an amount of white ink of a white ink separation channel from CMYK or RGB data from a print pipeline as an input by performing the following steps: determining the lightness expected for each pixel, L Pix, if printed on the reference media; computing a first white ink value, whitelnk 1, for each pixel using the equation: whiteInk 1 = L Pix * 1 − k. determining the chrominance expected for each pixel, C Pix, if printed on the reference media; computing a second white ink value, whitelnk 2, using the equation: whiteInk 2 = C Pix * 1 − k; setting the amount of white ink of the white ink separation channel to the higher value of whitelnk 1 and whitelnk 2; and when the lightness of the target media is different from the lightness of the reference media, printing using the white ink separation channel on the target media. computing a radiance efficiency factor, k, that is the ratio of the lightness of a target media to the lightness of a reference media; for each pixel: computing, using k, an amount of white ink of a white ink separation channel from CMYK or RGB data from a print pipeline as an input by performing the following steps: determining the lightness expected for each pixel, L Pix, if printed on the reference media; computing a first white ink value, whitelnk 1, for each pixel using the equation: whiteInk 1 = L Pix * 1 − k. determining the chrominance expected for each pixel, C Pix, if printed on the reference media; computing a second white ink value, whitelnk 2, using the equation: whiteInk 2 = C Pix * 1 − k; setting the amount of white ink of the white ink separation channel to the higher value of whitelnk 1 and whitelnk 2; and when the lightness of the target media is different from the lightness of the reference media, printing using the white ink separation channel on the target media. computing, using k, an amount of white ink of a white ink separation channel from CMYK or RGB data from a print pipeline as an input by performing the following steps: determining the lightness expected for each pixel, L Pix, if printed on the reference media; computing a first white ink value, whitelnk 1, for each pixel using the equation: whiteInk 1 = L Pix * 1 − k. determining the chrominance expected for each pixel, C Pix, if printed on the reference media; computing a second white ink value, whitelnk 2, using the equation: whiteInk 2 = C Pix * 1 − k; determining the lightness expected for each pixel, L Pix, if printed on the reference media; computing a first white ink value, whitelnk 1, for each pixel using the equation: whiteInk 1 = L Pix * 1 − k. determining the chrominance expected for each pixel, C Pix, if printed on the reference media; computing a second white ink value, whitelnk 2, using the equation: whiteInk 2 = C Pix * 1 − k; setting the amount of white ink of the white ink separation channel to the higher value of whitelnk 1 and whitelnk 2; and when the lightness of the target media is different from the lightness of the reference media, printing using the white ink separation channel on the target media.