Print colors are wrong (when compared to printing from a pc)

[Jason_in_Boston]

Help! For some reason, the colors (text and table backgrounds) in Word 2003 document are coming out much different when sent to the printer from a PC (versus a Mac). I am not sure where to turn!

Just a little background: we added a new Xerox Phaser 6180 color laser printer to our office network. I am using a PC, whereas my business partner is using a Mac (10.4 Tiger). Both of us are using Office 2003, and both of us are using the latest Xerox postscript printer driver for this specific model printer.

Xerox tech support basically said that Office documents print color using RGB, and that PCs print using RGB much better than Macs. That does not sound right to me. Shouldn't the color be coming out the same? Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated

 

[Phillip Jones]

Help! For some reason, the colors (text and table backgrounds) in Word
2003 document are coming out much different when sent to the printer
from a PC (versus a Mac). I am not sure where to turn!

Just a little background: we added a new Xerox Phaser 6180 color laser
printer to our office network. I am using a PC, whereas my business
partner is using a Mac (10.4 Tiger). Both of us are using Office 2003,
and both of us are using the latest Xerox postscript printer driver for
this specific model printer.

Xerox tech support basically said that Office documents print color
using RGB, and that PCs print using RGB much better than Macs. That does
not sound right to me. Shouldn't the color be coming out the same? Any
thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Tech support for Xerox is wrong. Pc's are not better than Mac's printing
RGB. They are *different* The color temperature used is different though
when setting up your Monitor

Go to monitor in system preferences. when window opens up click on color
then click on button Calibrate you will come to a window that has two
setting for Gama one setting is 1.8 and this is standard for Mac
Platform. Then there is a setting for PC's.

This will allow you to see color the same way a PC does. Also when you
insert a Graphic if the color isn't right click on the image in
Office2004 (which is what you have on the Mac) there is a button in the
palette that come up color color adjustment. It allows you to adjust
hue, saturation, tint and other items you may need to play with the
settings then you should be able to adjust so that they can look alike
or as close to alike as possible. But until you set your monitor up to
show color exactly like the the PC. You won't be able to make correct
adjustments.

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[John McGhie]

Hi Jason:

Phillip is on the right track here Colour matching is something the
industry pays specialists a hell of a lot of money to get right.

You have to match the entire print chain: Scanner, Monitor, Graphics
Editor, Word, Printer Driver and Printer.

There can be colour profile settings in each or all of those devices that
will have a substantial effect on the way colour appears.

In your case, make sure the PC and the Mac are both using the SAME printer
driver. That means creating a print server on the network, which runs the
driver for both clients. The PC and the Mac need to be configured to print
to the Print Server, not directly to the printer.

Your Xerox guy is being a little simplistic. Office applications do indeed
print in RGB. Various other applications can alternatively use CMYK. CMYK
is likely to produce superior results when sending to a four-colour laser
printer.

When handling RGB images, the printer driver is responsible for converting
from RGB to CMYK on the way through to the printer. How well it does this
is an open question.

But the printer driver on a local computer has the ability to adjust the
compensations that are made during this conversion. If one or both of the
machines in question is using their local printer driver, rather than the
one on the server, uniform colour is "unlikely" to be achieved. The Xerox
guy should install his printer driver on your print server, then optimise it
so that it exactly compensates for the printer, ink, and paper that you are
using.

After that is done, and both the PC and the Mac are pointed at the correct
printer driver on the file server, your results ought to be a lot closer.

Hope this helps

Help! For some reason, the colors (text and table backgrounds) in Word 2003
document are coming out much different when sent to the printer from a PC
(versus a Mac). I am not sure where to turn!

Just a little background: we added a new Xerox Phaser 6180 color laser
printer to our office network. I am using a PC, whereas my business partner
is using a Mac (10.4 Tiger). Both of us are using Office 2003, and both of us
are using the latest Xerox postscript printer driver for this specific model
printer.

Xerox tech support basically said that Office documents print color using RGB,
and that PCs print using RGB much better than Macs. That does not sound right
to me. Shouldn't the color be coming out the same? Any thoughts or
suggestions would be greatly appreciated

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[CyberTaz]

Just a few points to add to what John & Phillip said....

PC gamma BTW is 2.2, but that's not where the real problem arises as far as
printing is concerned although it makes a difference on screen. Like
Phillip was suggesting, where most make their mistake is in trying to get the
image to *display* the same on Macs & PCs with the expectation that the image
will then *print* the same on either system. Monitors are typically the
biggest liars in terms of color. John has provided a rather full explanation
of why they won't. However, he left out one important player in the game when
he listed the chain of hardware & software involved in color reproduction.


The image, itself - if properly prepared - can carry its own color profile
which can make it device-independent if printed on the proper equipment. In
that same vein you might further explore the Color settings available through
the Mac's Print dialog in order to better control the color matching system
that will render the best results.

Regards|:>)
Bob Jones
MVP Office:Mac