Using Color

This topic includes:

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"Printers and CMYK" on page 2-35

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"Monitors and RGB" on page 2-35

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"Image Processing" on page 2-36

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"Adjusting Color Using TekColor Correction" on page 2-36

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"Color Calibration" on page 2-37

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"Paper Calibration" on page 2-38

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"Color Sampler Pages" on page 2-38

Your printer and monitor generate color quite differently. Your printer produces prints using a

series of dots in three primary colors: cyan, magenta, and yellow. When equal amounts of

these three colors are overlaid, the resulting color is black.

The printer can overlay two colors to produce a third color. For example, magenta and yellow

produce red. Cyan and magenta produce blue. To produce less saturated colors the printer

"mixes" white by leaving some dots unprinted. Mixing magenta with unprinted dots produces

pink.

By overlaying two or more primaries, the printer generates a palette of eight colors. Although

equal portions of the three primary colors form black, your printer includes a separate black

toner cartridge to produce very dense black for images with a large amount of black text or

black backgrounds. These four colors—cyan, magenta, yellow, and black—represent the color

system known as CMYK.

Your monitor projects color onto the screen. The three primary colors the monitor projects are

red, green, and blue. When equal portions of these three colors are projected, they produce

white. These three colors represent the color system known as RGB.

The surface of your monitor consists of thousands of phosphor dots. To produce red, the

monitor projects red phosphors. To produce a less saturated hue of red (pink) the monitor turns

on two out of three of the red phosphors. Printers add unprinted white dots to produce less

saturated colors, while monitors turn on fewer phosphors.

Another important difference between your printer and monitor is the way each one translates

light. Paper reflects light, while monitors emit light. Because of these different methods,

printers have one range of colors and monitors have a different range of colors.

Phaser® 7750 Color Laser Printer

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