Introduction; Color Printing Technology - Xante Accel-a-Graphix CT4 User Manual

Introduction

To take full advantage of your controller's features and make your
images look their best, it is important that you understand XANTÉ's
color printing technology and variables, rendering dictionaries,
transfer curves, color measurement, X-Screening, scaling, and page
design. This chapter covers these subjects.

Color Printing Technology

Each color system device interprets and reproduces color using its
own technology (or format) within its own color space (fig. 7.1). As
resulting data passes from one space to the next, say from a
monitor's space to a printer's space, the data needs to be converted
from the first device's format to a format understood by the second
device.
Note: Variations not only occur between device types such as
monitors and printers, but also within device classes. For
example with printers, inkjet technology differs from laser
technology. Even media and environmental factors affect
output. (See "Other Color Printing Variables" later in this
chapter.)
Because of the many different devices available (brands of scanners,
printers, monitors, etc.), it is impractical to create a separate
translator for each possible combination. The Commission
Internationale de l'Eclairage (CIE) solved this dilemma by creating a
standard translation technology for color measurements.
Scanner
CIE
Standard
Translation
Space
RGB Color
Theory
_______________________________________
PostScript
PC
Controller
CIE
Standard
Translation
Space
Space
RGB Color
CMYK Color
Theory Theory
Fig. 7. 1 Color Spaces
Printer
CIE
Standard
Translation
Space
CMYK Color
Theory
Imaging Basics 7-3