RE: MS Word color help needed
RE: MS Word color help needed
- Subject: RE: MS Word color help needed
- From: Scott Olswold <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 09:55:31 -0500
Miro,
1. Is it true that one cannot place Lab space TIF images into MS
Word/Office?
Yes. CIELab anything short of EPS will not work.
2. I've noticed that when grayscales TIF images are placed into MS Word,
they print as 4-color black instead of K only. Anyone know why or how to fix
this? I know that EPS grayscales print correctly as K only.
3. Any job I print from PowerPoint that has TIF images (RGB, CMYK, Lab or
Grayscale) prints out as 4-color grayscales. Is this normal behavior for
Power
Point? EPS versions of the files print correctly.
4. When gradients are made with the color "black" to white from the default
color palette, I notice that when I do this on Windows it prints as a
4-color grey gradient, while on the Mac I always get K only? why is this?
Questions 2-4 are basically the same question. Well, MS Office (exclude
Publisher from the list) uses an RGB workflow for everything except EPS,
which it can't touch. This means that it internally converts Gray, RGB, and
CMYK into its RGB space, which is sRGB. When you print RGB-defined gray, you
end up with process color builds. This happens whether you import images or
use the Office colors. Some printers (like the EFI RIP), allow "Pure Black
Text and Graphics" or similar, which converts RGB=0 to K=0, but it only
works for RGB=0. If you're on a PC (but isn't this the ColorSync list? <g>)
and on Win95/98/Me, you can use the AdobePS 4.4x or higher driver to convert
Windows gray (which is RGB) into PostScript Gray (which is monocomponent K).
This is available through the graphics tab, and can be used even if ICM 2.0
is not activated. There is no similar option on the MacOS.
5. When the default "Blue" color is used from the default color palette, it
also prints differently between Mac and Windows. (the same thing occurs with
the color "Red" also.)
I've never really noticed this before. To help stabilize the printing 'twix
the two OSes, it may be wise to set up ICM 2.0 for the print driver and
ColorSync on the Mac using the same printer profile. Then use ColorSync when
printing (instead of Color/Grayscale).
6. Finally, When the colors "Blue" and "Red" are printed as PS files
(either on Mac9 or Win98), I see that there is also a difference between
these colors and those from a PDF version of the same PS file (made, of
course,
with no color management/conversion in Distiller4 on Mac or Win). I have
seen
this happen with CMYK defined TIF bitmap colors when printing from Quark
XPress PS and PDF files. I thought PDF would preserve them????
PDF won't preserve them unless you use PDF Writer on either platform. It
used GDI (Windows) or QuickDraw (Mac) as its transport, and thus preserve
direct RGB. Also, it may be a good idea to look at the RGB components for
these colors in your application and make sure that they match between
platforms.
I hope this helps.
Scott Olswold
Senior Systems Support Engineer
Danka Office Imaging
MCSE, CNA 5, A+, Network+, Adobe Certified Expert (PageMaker and Photoshop)