A BASIC PROBLEM - THE MEASUREMENT OF HEIGHT AND AREA

In chromatograms arising in different situations, it may be that peak height or peak area is the more fundamental measure of sample composition. Examples illustrate this. There need to be facilities to evaluate either measure. Evaluation of peak heights and areas as carried out by digital computers and microprocessors is described. Methods for signal filtering and outlier rejection that are pertinent to chromatogram interpretation are discussed. The process of recognizing baseline segments and chromatogram peaks is presented along with subsequent calculations of components' net response peak heights and areas. Resolution of overlapped chromatogram peaks is illustrated graphically. It is shown why tangent skimming normally introduces more error than dropping a perpendicular and in what cases it is an improvement. Emphasis is on describing the variety of situations with which a computer has to deal in interpreting chromatograms.