You may occasionally want to adjust the color of your prints for specific objectives, such as printing on transparencies. A description of each color correction mode follows.
Select a color correction mode from your software application, at the printer's front panel, or with downloadable utility files.
To select print features from Windows applications, refer to Print features quick reference: Windows 3.1, Print features quick reference: Windows 95, and Print features quick reference: Windows NT 4.0; to select print features from Macintosh applications, refer to Print features quick reference: Macintosh printer drivers (Phaser 360), Print features quick reference: Macintosh printer drivers (Apple LaserWriter 8), and Print features quick reference: Macintosh printer drivers (Phaser 360 GX). Settings from your software application override the printer's front panel default settings.
TekColor correction descriptions
The following options are available.
Note: TekColor color corrections do not affect colors specified in the
PostScript Level 2 international color standard CIE XYZ,
developed by the Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage
(International Commission on Illumination).
Automatic: General all-purpose printing
The Automatic (default) option is the best choice for most office printing. This mode optimizes the color quality on each page. The printer automatically applies the appropriate color correction for each element (text, graphics, photographs) for the best reproduction.
Vivid Color: Printing the brightest colors and a truer blue
The Vivid Color option makes printed blue appear less purple by reducing the amount of magenta used to print blue colors. Other colors are also adjusted to compensate for the adjusted blue. This selection also increases contrast, making the output appear brighter. Use this selection for presentation graphics, such as overhead transparencies, and for bright-looking colors that don't need to match the screen's colors or printing press colors.
Also use this option if you have specified a color in the CMYK system, and the color has a black component, and the color appears lighter than you expected when printed. Vivid Color adjusts CMYK colors using a method that adds black to other components. This option prints more saturated (darker) colors and may be useful for printing overhead transparencies.
Simulate Display: Simulating screen colors
The Simulate Display option makes printed colors approximate the colors on a standard display screen. This selection should improve the screen-to-printer color accuracy for most applications that don't perform their own color corrections. This selection is best for applications that define colors as RGB (red, green, blue), HLS (hue, lightness, saturation), or HSB (hue, saturation, brightness).
Commercial press options: Matching printing press colors
There are three printing press color correction options. Each press option conforms to a different printing standard. Use a press option if you are previewing work for a four-color job to be printed on a printing press. These options simulate a four-color commercial printing press, not solid spot colors, such as PANTONE Colors.
Note: If you are selecting PANTONE Colors in your application, use
the None option; see None: Turning off all color corrections for
details. Also, use the None option with other color management
systems, such as EfiColor.
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None: Turning off all color corrections
If you do not want to use any TekColor color corrections, change the color correction setting to None. Select None when you are doing the following:
Monochrome: Printing in gray scale
The Monochrome option prints your color image as a monochrome gray scale (shades of gray between black and white). Use this option to print page masters for photocopying in black-and-white.
Use Printer Setting: Using the printer's current default
The Use Printer Setting option is available only in the supported drivers. This option sends no color correction information to the printer. It uses the current default in the printer to process colors for printing. The factory default color correction is Automatic. The printer's default can be one of the following:
Printing and using the color sampler charts
You can print color sampler charts from your printer to see how colors you have specified from within an application will look when printed. Having a preprinted sample of each color can help you save time in selecting the right one.
The color sampler charts available are CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black), RGB (red, green, and blue), HSB (hue, saturation, and brightness), and PANTONE Color. Print the color samples from files on the printer's CD-ROM, from the Tektronix web site, or through your web browser. The CMYK and RGB charts can also be printed from the Help Pages menu at the printer's front panel.
Each color sampler chart is several pages long; the pages can be connected to form a wall chart or placed in a binder for easy reference.
Tips for working with color
Whether you are producing color reports, memos, graphs, charts, overhead transparencies for presentations, color handouts, or design comps, there are a few things to keep in mind when using color.
General guidelines
Special considerations
If your Phaser 360 printer is shared on a network
Another user may use the downloadable color correction utility files, or the printer's front panel, to change the printer's default color correction setting. If this situation occurs and you try to print through a nonsupported driver, your prints may not turn out as expected. Refer to Sharing the printer on a network for more information.
Application color corrections
Some applications perform their own color corrections to improve screen-to-printer color matching. The TekColor color correction options in the supported drivers adjust colors in the printer after the application has performed its color corrections.
If you are using an unsupported driver
If you are not using one of the printer drivers shipped with the printer or another driver that uses the Phaser 360 PPD (PostScript printer description) files to control printer functions, then use the downloadable utility files from the printer's CD-ROM or the printer's front panel to select color corrections.
