The nature of paper used plays a pivotal role in determining the quality of the final printed product. The quality of paper is defined by a number of parameters, which affect not just the quality of print, but also controls the physical aspects during print production in offset lithographic presses. Maplitho paper is almost always the substrate of choice for run-of-the-mill commercial jobs. This work deals with the study of the inter-dependability of the various substrate parameters with the print quality. The study was conducted on commercially available maplitho papers of different GSM from various manufacturers. This work presents a relationship that exists between physical factors of the substrate like rate of penetration of ink in paper, surface regularity with ink film drying time and gloss levels of printed substrate that defines ink-substrate interactions. A strong correlation was obtained between the datasets used for the experiment suggesting that, for the same ink film, its drying time and gloss levels on different maplitho papers is dependent on physical factors intrinsic to the paper.