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Appendix A: About Printer Tables
April 1996
Appendix A: About Printer Tables
Printer tables are powerful tools for precisely adjusting
the colors", in prints. The tables allow you to obtain the
closest possible match between a displayed image and a
print of that image. KODAK TableMaker Software", allows
you to create new tables or modify existing tables.
Printer tables can be used to change print
characteristics, such as making images lighter or darker.
Additive and Subtractive Color
Displayed images and printed images have different
appearances due to the nature of the processes used to
produce the colors on monitors and in prints.
A monitor's uses an additive color process to produce a
screen image. Red, green, and blue light from the color
phosphors in the tube are added together to produce
white light. Various mixtures of the three colors produce a
variety of colors. A color printer uses a subtractive color
process, where ambient light passes through layers of
color dyes (cyan, magenta, yellow, and sometimes
black), reflects off a white paper base, and passes back
through the color dye layers to your eyes. The dyes
produce color by absorbing portions of the color
spectrum from the light striking the surface of the print.
The perceived color of a print is also strongly influenced
by the type and intensity of the light in which it is viewed.
A color gamut is the range of visible colors that can be
produced by a specific set of primary colors (such as red,
blue, and green or cyan, magenta, yellow, and black).
Monitors, scanners, and color prints also have different
color gamuts. Many different CRT phosphors and color
dyes are available, and each produces a different range
of colors. Phosphors generally produce a wider color
gamut than photographic printing dyes, particularly in the
blue and green regions. However, some printable colors
cannot be displayed on a typical monitor.
A-1
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