Color Difference - Lexmark Optra C710 User Manual

Color difference

Most software applications today provide us with a WYSIWYG
(What You See Is What You Get) environment. This helps us
develop the look of our document. However, the difference
between the additive and subtractive colors may sometimes
cause a problem between what you see and what you get. This is
due to the difference between additive and subtractive colors.
The reason for this lies in the color spectrum of the different
devices.
Your printer is capable of delivering over 16 million colors.
With such a large variety of colors to choose from, you'll proba-
bly be able to closely match most of your screen designs. There
are however, colors your printer can produce that are impossible
to duplicate on your monitor and there are colors your monitor
can display that cannot be duplicated on any printer.
There are many ways you can ensure the color on the screen and
the color you print are the same or at least a very close match.
When you create a swatch like the one to the left, you can
choose and compare your printed and screen colors.
The easiest way for you to get consistent color from your screen
to your printer is to select standard colors. When you produce
color on your screen, it is produced using a color model. A color
model is a system that defines color according to a set of basic
properties. Most software applications can use this color model
to closely match the colors you have on your screen.
As we said earlier, one simple method to aid in planning the use
of color is to produce a color swatch of the colors you plan to
use. Then, you can see how these colors will look when printed.
As your monitor ages, the colors on the screen also change.
Changing the print cartridges and paper in your printer will also
have a major impact on the color in your printed document.
Always print a new swatch of the colors you plan on using
before you invest a lot of time creating your screen designs.
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Chapter 4: Understanding color