Gray fill

[frugal_cat]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
Processor: Intel

I go to fill the box with a gray color so I select fill>more colors> and I
want a pure gray made from black so I use the CMYK slider and move everything to 0% but the black I move to 20 or 30%. Select ok and send the page to print and it is coming up as a color copy (which costs more than a black and white copy) and it has a pinkish tint to the gray. I go back and check the color of the gray box and the slides have moved. Cyan is now 35%, Magenta is 27%, Yellow is 25% and Black is 0%. How do it get the pure gray color to stick and not change on me? I've looked under options, preferences and I can't find anything to fix that.

 

[CyberTaz]

Unless you're actually printing to a CMYK device [ie., commercial press] do
not specify CMYK values. Instead - regardless of what color labels the
printer cartridges may bear - use RGB or web safe colors. Otherwise, you're
leaving it in the hands of the device to interpolate the color values to
back into RGB. Additionally, CMYK & RGB (inks v. light) don't share the same
gamut or range of colors so there's plenty of room for deviation.

If you specify CMYK values in order to print gray that accounts for why it's
being interpreted as a color job. It's also possible that whoever/whatever
is "charging" you considers anything other than pure black on white to be a
*color* job.

For what you're calling for go into the same dialog but select Color Slider
(2nd from left) open the list & pick "Gray Scale Slider" & set the shade you
want... See if that doesn't work out better. And keep in mind that your
display is often the worst indicator of how any color will actually print.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac