Colors tab

This is where you modify the color settings of printouts.

Colors used

You can specify whether printouts appear in color or grayscale. In addition, the Grayscale using black ink option is provided for printers that use black ink to print out grayscale.

Gamma

You can use this to correct the gamma value. Modifying this value changes the contrast and brightness in a nonlinear manner. But white always remains white and black always remains black.

Saturation

You can use the slide bar to specify the color saturation. All colors become paler when you move the slid bar to the left (similar to a black/white picture); they become stronger when you move it to the right.

Hue

You can move the colors on the color circle. The impression of brightness of the original color is retained.

Contrast

You can use this to correct the contrast in a linear or nonlinear way. When you reduce the contrast linearly, white becomes gray. In other words, every pixel is displayed in gray in printouts. When you have enabled the Retain white option, the color white is retained (nonlinear correction). Damit wird die Korrektur nicht-linear.

Brightness

You can use this to correct the brightness in a linear or nonlinear way. When you reduce the brightness linearly, white becomes gray. In other words, every pixel is displayed in gray in printouts. When you have enabled the Retain white option, the color white is retained (nonlinear correction). Damit wird die Korrektur nicht-linear.

• Brightness correction (RGB-based): You can set the brightness of red, green, and blue separately. This way, you can correct color faults. When you reduce the brightness linearly, white becomes gray. In other words, every pixel is displayed in gray in printouts. When you have enabled the Retain white option, the color white is retained (nonlinear correction). Damit wird die Korrektur nicht-linear.
• Mix brightness: When you change the brightness, the RGB values usually rise or fall linearly. This often produces 'hard' results. The Mix brightness option mixes the colors for the brightness correction with black or white, which produces 'harmonic' results.
• Retain white: You can specify whether the color white is also affected by contrast or brightness corrections. When a printout includes white spaces, it is either empty or contains white design entities. However, the program cannot make a distinction between these two situations.

Color control

The settings you make here are executed directly by the HP DesignJet printer. The options that are actually available to you depend on the device you are using.

• Bright colors: Color saturation is retained (if possible). Particularly appropriate for images with few halftones.
• Copy from screen: Color contrast is retained (if possible). Particularly appropriate for photos.
• Colorimetric: Colorimetry is retained. Particularly appropriate for graphic design.
• Use color profile: You can enable the color profile you have selected using Set up profile.
• Set up profile: Clicking the Set up profile button opens the Color Profile dialog box, where you can set up and select an ICM color profile for color correction. This feature is based on the Windows color correction module, which is shipped with the operating system.

Half toning

You can specify the mode the printer uses to create halftones. Photos in newspapers are halftone images, for example. Although the printout only includes one color (black), the photos appear as if grayscale was used.

• Scatter dithering: This option uses a pattern changing randomly to simulate colors. This mode usually creates the best results.
• Pattern dithering: A fixed pattern is used to simulate colors. The results created are similar to pictures in newspapers.
• Optimum setting: The setting considered to be the best for a specific device is automatically used. However, this is the Pattern dithering setting for quite a few devices.
• Default setting: The default setting of the device is used.