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PRINTING IN COLOR
Considering Your Computer's Monitor
Your ability to create colors is limited by how many colors you can work with
on the monitor screen. Of course, if you are using a monochrome monitor,
creating color printouts will be extremely difficult.
Monitors are classified by their resolution and the number of different colors
they can display. At lower resolution, color monitors can display more colors.
Older CGA color monitors can produce only a small number of colors at a
low resolution. Most newer color monitors can display many more at higher
resolutions. For example, a VGA or XGA graphics system can display 256 or
more different colors at higher resolutions.
The way monitors display colors and the way printers print color is very
different. Monitors generate light while printed materials reflect light. Monitors
combine three colors of light (red, green, and blue) at different intensities to
produce the appearance of many different colors.
Printers combine three color values (cyan, yellow, and magenta) to produce
different colors on your output. By overlaying dots of ink in a variety of
combinations and varying the amount of each ink, your printer can produce
virtually any color desired.
Because monitors and printers are so different, achieving an accurate match
of some monitor colors is extremely difficult. The supplier has optimized your
printer to offer the best match between the most popular monitors. Yet, you
may still find certain colors difficult to match exactly.
To maximise the color matching capabilities of your printer, you must have a
high resolution monitor with a 24-bit color monitor display card.
For details on your monitor's ability to display colors, refer to the
documentation that came with it.
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