Color And Text - Minolta Color PAGEPRO EX Manual

Using color effectively

Color and text

It is not a coincidence that the overwhelming majority of text you see
is printed in black toner on white paper. Text in black on white is
highly legible and is not fatiguing to read for extended periods. For
many color materials, using black text on a white background and
confining color to graphic elements and headings is a good choice.
Color text can add flair to documents printed on paper when used
skillfully, and is widely used in presentations. When using color text,
avoid dazzling text and background combinations created from
primary complements, especially red and cyan or red and blue; they
are visually fatiguing and hard to read. Color text is more legible
when distinguished from its background by a difference in lightness
for example, dark blue text on a light beige background. In addition,
using many different colors in a string of text makes for a confused
appearance and is hard to read. However, using a single highlight
color is an effective way to draw the reader's eye to selected words.
When using color text, keep in mind that small font sizes typically do
not print in color with the same sharpness as in black. In most
applications, black text prints exclusively in black toner while color
text usually prints with two or more toners. Any misregistration
between the different toners on paper causes color text to lose
definition. You can make test prints to find the smallest point size at
which color text prints clearly. When using high-end graphics
applications that allow you to specify color as percentages of cyan,
magenta, yellow, and black, you can create pure cyan or pure magenta
text that prints with the same sharpness as black text. (Pure yellow
text is extremely hard to read on anything but a dark or
complementary background.)
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