Re: Number of Colors
Re: Number of Colors
- Subject: Re: Number of Colors
- From: Robin Myers <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 23 Aug 2002 09:50:14 -0700
- Organization: Robin Myers Imaging
Terry Wyse wrote:
>
>
on 8/23/02 11:19 AM, Robin Myers wrote:
>
>
> At the dot level, a CMYK halftone device can only print 32 different
>
> colors (all the possible combinations of C, M, Y, K and White). When
>
> looking at the result of this over a larger area, the reflected light
>
> blends to make millions of colors.
>
>
But how many truly UNIQUE colors can be produced? There are many
>
combinations of CMY+K that produce effectively the SAME color, right? All
>
the possible combinations of CMY, CMYK and K-only to produce a neutral gray
>
scale would be an easy example of this.
It depends on the printer's inks and paper. On an electrostatic printer
I worked on, one of our ink sets produced bronzing when color toners
were layed on top of the black toner, but not when the layers were
reversed. On the same printer, because it used a liquid toning system,
sometimes a color that layed onto black slightly disolved a bit of the
black layer, thus producing a gray that combined with the color toner
layer to make a unique color. Other printers I've worked with do not
produce a black when the three primaries C, M, and Y are combined. I've
seen brown, bluish-gray, greenish-gray, and other colors. The only way
to be certain is to print the 32 combinations on your printer, measure
them (preferably with a spectrophotometer) and see how many unique
combinations you get.
Also the number of combinations may vary for the same ink on different
papers. On my Epson 2200, printing with the Gloss Black ink on matte
paper produces a dark gray which when combined with color makes a dark
version of the color, not black. Epson has a special Matte Black just to
alleviate this problem.
Robin Myers
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