Juds said:
I am trying to print an invitation and I want to print white ink on a
burgundy paper. How can I go about doing that in Office, Word
specifically?
You don't. This has nothing whatsoever to do with software, it's a printer
issue. Does your printer have a white cartridge? No, it does not. White is
not a colour, it is the absence of colour. When you print 'white' on white
paper, it looks white because the paper is white. Print 'white' on coloured
paper (e.g. burgundy) and it will be the colour of the paper.
No consumer-grade inkjet is capable of printing white because they cannot
utilise a white ink. Why? Well the white ink used in those printers which
can use it (e.g. the now-defunct ALPS units) is (usually) comprised of
titanium pigment, which is also the main component of the white emulsion
paint you'd use to paint your walls. Think of the consistency of emulsion
paint and you'd never contemplate putting that in your standard inkjet.
OK, now you're probably thinking "Why can't I print white using a mixture of
inks?" For the answer to this, and more than you ever wanted to know about
chromatography (the science of colour) see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour. However, the basics are below.
There are two types of colour: - pigment and light. The former is often
referred to as 'additive' and the latter 'subtractive'. Why? Because of the
way the colours are mixed. The three primary colours are red, green and blue
(the three primary colours of pigment are only red, yellow and blue because
the pigments are impure). Now, the mixing of light goes something like
this: -
Red + Blue = Magenta (as you'd expect)
Red + Green = Yellow (this is why yellow is considered primary when it comes
to pigments because it cannot accurately reflect all the red light).
Green + Blue = Cyan
Red + Green + Blue = White (or, more correctly, Red - Green - Blue = White
as white is the absence of colour).
OK, on to pigment (paint, ink, etc). You know what you were taught in
school: -
Red + Yellow = Orange
Yellow + Blue = Green
Red + Blue = Purple
Red + Yellow + Blue = Black (because all light is being absorbed, therefore,
as far as pigments are concerned, black is the absence of colour).
Therefore, if you mix all the colours in your printer, you'll produce black.
This is really primary school science. I remember being taught this aged
about seven.
Please note that, in the strict chromatographic sense, black and white
should *not* be referred to as colours.
I hope that adequately explains it.
