Introduction; Color Printing Technology - Xante ScreenWriter Colour ScreenWriter User Manual

Introduction

To take full advantage of your XANTÉ Colour ScreenWriter printer's
features and to make your images look their best, it is important to
understand some color basics. This includes color printing technology
and variables, color management using ICC profiles and CRDs (color
rendering dictionaries), and some specific color printing procedures.

Color Printing Technology

Each color system device interprets and reproduces color using its own
technology (or format) within its own color space (fig. 8.1). 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 "Color Printing Concepts and 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
Standard
Translation
Space
RGB Color
Theory
_______________________________________
PC
CIE
Standard
Translation
Space
RGB Color
Theory
Fig. 8.1 Color Spaces
Printer
CIE
Space
CMYK Color
Theory
Color Printing 8-3