G r a p h i c

d e s i g n

a guide to using colour in

design and pre-press
A Guide to using colour in
Design and Pre-press

Colour printers are more affordable than ever. And,

whether you’re adding spot colour to a newsletter or
producing full-colour comps for a client presentation,
the right colour printer can make you — and your work
— look their best. A colour printer can also save you
time and money.

But with a wealth of technologies and features to choose

f rom, how do you get the best printers for you and your
company?

This guide is designed to help.

As a companion to this guide we have written a booklet

that helps to explain the colour technologies available
and which one is more suitable to your needs.

So read on. And learn everything you need to know

about colour printers for graphic artists.
 Completing the Desktop Revolution
2 Computers like the Macintosh® and
the PC and software such as Aldus
PageMaker®, QuarkXPress®, Adobe
Illustrator® and Photoshop™ may
be the tools that draw graphic artists
into the desktop revolution. But it’s
the colour printer that completes
the picture.
With the right colour printers, you
can produce vibrant, Pantone®*-
approved output of your computer-
generated illustrations in sizes up to
full A3 with bleeds.
You can create camera-ready artwork,
or g en era te ti gh t c olour
c o m p re h e n s i v e s and layouts that
give clients and managers a clear
preview of your final design. Or
print quick “position only” scans to
* Pantone, Inc.’s check-standard trademark for colour reproduction
and colour reproduction materials.
check the size and correct positioning
of scanned images, photographs and
colour breaks.
For many applications, you can
handle pre-film colour proofing in-
house, making colour adjustments
before creating an outside proof. In
doing so, you minimize the number
of expensive iterations. You’ll not
only reduce the time involved with
pre-film proofs but also benefit from
the lower per-print costs of using
your own colour printer.
For items like newsletters, reports
and report covers, posters and direct
mail flyers — even t-shirts — your
printed output can be your final
output, ready to mail or distribute. It
will look sharp and attractive, and
A colour printer can help you look your best,
impress your clients, save money — and have
more time for creative work.
have the added impact that colour
brings to any black-and-white output.
You’ll also improve your professional
image and reduce expensive
redesigns. No more basic comps,
where the client has to guess at what
you mean. No more black-and-white
Along with colour comps, an in-
house colour printer can help
with pre-film colour proofing and
handle limited-run production
printing of items like brochures
and newsletters.
comps with colours filled in using 3
markers and crayons, and pasted-on
or sketched-in photos.
And you can cut down on the number
of time-consuming — and expensive
— trips to a service bureau to use its
printing facilities.
In short, the right colour printers can
help you maximise the full benefits
of the desktop revolution. They show
your work in the most favorable light,
pay for themselves by minimizing
wasted time and redesigns, and leave
you more time and energy for what’s
most important — your creative work.

4 From Eight Colours to 16 Million
A printer’s halftoning (or dither)
p a t t e rns are a form of image
p ro c e s s i n g that plays a big role in
determining overall colour quality.
Sophisticated halftoning is what
takes a printer from the eight colours
available through simple overlaying,
up to the nearly 17 million shades
that high-end printers and colour
monitors can produce. Halftone
patterns affect how many colours the
machine can produce (the printer’s
colour gamut), as well as whether
the output will include moiré or
doily patterns or have distinct bands
of colour rather than smoothly
shaded gradations.
Halftoning has been borrowed from
the conventional printing industry
and incorporated into products such
as the PostScript™ Level 2 page
description language. Leading
printer vendors, while ensuring
PostScript compatibility, may also
spend years creating customized
halftoning algorithms that yield the
most pleasing results with their
particular machines.
Halftone dots Printer spots
The idea behind halftoning is to
simulate the dot patterns of the
conventional press. The printer does
this by clustering dots into groups
known as cells, and treating these as
larger dots.
Many colour printer manufacturers
use standard PostScript halftoning,
which creates cells of 6 x 6 dots.
Tektronix printers typically use a
5 x 5 halftone cell, achieving a 20
percent improvement in resolution
and giving colour-fill areas a smoother
and less grainy appearance. Ord i -
narily, the smaller halftone cell
would reduce the number of intensity
(or value) levels available for each
colour, but the Tektronix cell patterns
use special techniques to preserve
the full allotment of intensity levels.
Computer printers simulate the
traditional print process’s
variable-sized dots by clustering
groups of dots into halftone cells
and varying the number and
pattern of dots within each cell.
Printer manufacturers use
custom halftone patterns to
produce colour palettes of millions
of shades and output that’s free
of moiré or doily patterns.
Not all print technologies require
halftoning. Dye sublimation
p roduces continuous-tone,
p h ot o realistic images without
halftoning by using heat to vary the
intensity of the printed colour dots.
Even printers that do provide
halftoning don’t need it for line art
or primary-colour printing. But to
produce large colour palettes and
smooth colour shading on most
printer technologies, customized
halftoning is essential.
Instead of halftoning patterns, dye-sublimation
printers use variable heat to print dots of varying
intensities, much as photographic processes use
variable intensities of light for dark and light regions.
Colours Faithful and True
While halftoning can provide a large
colour palette, it doesn’t ensure that
those colours will correspond closely
to the ones you see on your
c o m p u t e r’s monitor or those that
will be produced by a conventional
press.
Several factors make on-screen com-
puter colours look different from
printed colours.
In contrast to a printer’s subtractive
colour system, colours that come from
an emitted light source, such as your
computer’s colour monitor or colour
scanner, are based on the additive
primaries: red, green and blue
(RGB). Each addressable point (or
pixel) on the screen has a triad of
phosphors — one each in red, green
and blue. To display a red object, the
monitor uses an electron gun to
“turn on” the red phosphors in the
appropriate area. Turning on all the
phosphors produces white.
Unlike the dot-or-no-dot approach
of most colour printers, the monitor’s
electron gun can be controlled in
Your computer monitor produces colour by
means of an electron gun that illuminates
red, green or blue phospors on the screen.
Lighting up all the phosphors creates white.
fine steps, making possible subtle 5
colour distinctions at each pixel.
High-end personal computers,
Macintosh computers and worksta-
tions use eight steps (or eight bits of
information) for each of the three
phosphors, for a total of 24 steps for
each pixel. Another benefit of
halftoning is that it allows the
printer to capture and use this
i n f o rm a t i o n , rather than ignoring
the extra bits and losing the colour
information it represents.
For graphic arts applications, consis-
tent colour reproduction is critical,
whether the source of the colour is
the RGB system of the colour monitor
or scanner, or the CMYK system of a
computer printer or offset press.
To accomplish this, colour printers
may support a variety of colour
management systems (CMSs) or
colour matching systems. For
example, the PA N T O N E ®
MATCHING SYSTEM, which is
widely used in creating spot colours,
is well known in the graphic arts
c o m m u n i t y. Pantone, Inc. has
developed a computer graphics
version of its system, and works with
6 Pantone-licensed application software
developers as well as computer
monitor and printer manufacturers
to ensure optimum representation
of PANTONE® Colours.
Colour management systems
g e n e r a l l y work by specifying
colours in terms of an objective,
device-independent standard
rather than in device-dependent
terms such as RGB or CMYK.
For example, PostScript Level 2
and Tektronix’ TekColor PS use
the international colour standard
known as CIE XYZ, developed by
the Commission Internationale
de l’ Eclairage (International
Commission on Illumination).
Other colour management systems
which colour printers may support
include EfiColor™ from Electronics
for Imaging, Inc. (EFI), ColorSync™
from Apple Computer, Inc. and
ColorSense™ from Kodak. All of
these CMSs offer exciting possibilities
as growing numbers of pre - p re s s
s o f t w a re packages begin to
incorporate support for them.
TekColor™: The Tektronix Colour Quality Distinction
Colour management systems such as EfiColor, ColorSync and ColorSense are
host-based solutions that profile a wide range of input and output devices to
match the colours common between them.
In contrast, TekColor is a printer-based solution that’s independent of any
s o f tware pre-press package or hardware adjustments. Using TekColor you can
emulate the subdued CMYK colours of an offset printing press, emulate the
computer screen’s RGB colours, or just produce the brightest, most vivid
colours possible — all on demand, without the need to change inks or set
complicated switches. And you retain full PostScript Level 2 compatibility.
The TekColor family of image-enhancing features includes a variety of
Tektronix proprietary colour printing technologies. Examples include:
• TekColor Dynamic Correction™ lets you produce the closest possible
match to your computer screen’s colours or produce the brightest, most
vivid colours possible - on demand, and without the need to change inks
or set complicated features.
• TekColor Finepoint™ allows Tektronix phase-change printers to render
raster images such as scanned photographs in extremely fine detail.
• TekColor Photofine™ improves the rendering of fine lines, fine text
and transparency images in continuous-tone, dye sublimation printing.
• TekColor SuperCell 600™ allows most Tektronix thermal-wax transfer
printers to print at 600 x300 dpi for remarkably crisp images.
No More Chromalin™? No Way! 7

Will colour printers eliminate the need for film proofing steps like
MatchPrint™ or Chromalins?

Some colour printer companies, especially those selling dye

sublimation printers, say they will.

But most experts, including those at Tektronix, don’t think so.

Some form of film proofing is still needed — both as a final check
to catch any errors in the creation of the film, and to help the
press operator.

What a colour printer can do is cut down on the number of film

proofs you’ll need by helping you create tighter comps earlier in
the design process. With this “prefilm proofing,” your clients can
see fully developed concepts without your having to go to the
time and expense of an actual film proof. And your colour work
can be checked to a very close approximation of the final output.

A colour printer will save you time, money and effort when
compared to the traditional film proofing methods. But you’ll still
want your MatchPrints or Chromalins for the final proof before
going to print.
8 The Creative Edge

For many users, a printer is just a printer — a tool, no more,

no less.

For graphic artists, though, a printer is a chance to showcase

the beauty, elegance and effectiveness of your work. Which
can give you not just a creative edge but a competitive
business edge.

Turn the page to learn how to find out more about which
Tektronix colour printer is right for you.
 For further information
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About Tektronix line to download latest printer drivers and software in
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Pacific Head Office:

Tektronix, Inc. has been a leader in colour printing since Tektronix Pacific/Japan
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PO Box 1000, M/S 63/630
ink-jet printers. Our engineers and scientists are innovators Wilsonville, OR 97070-1000
in many areas, including phase-change technology, ink USA
Tel: 1-800-835-6100
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If one of the telephone numbers below does not apply
processing techniques. And it shows in our printers. to your country, dial the USA at (503) 682-7377 or
Whether your business uses PCs, Macs, workstations or Tektronix Europe in the UK at +44 1628 403640.
mainframes, Tektronix colour printers will make your Some of the products, options or services mentioned in
this brochure may not be available for purchase at later
documents and presentations look their best. upgrades. See your Tektronix representative for specific
information.
To learn more about Tektronix colour printer products, Australia Tel: (2) 888-7066 Fax: (2) 888-0125
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Copyright © 1993, Tektronix, Inc. All rights reserved. United Kingdom and Eire
Tektronix is a registered trademark of Tektronix, Inc. TekColour, ColourCoat, Photofine and Finepoint Tel: (01628) 403600 Fax: (01628) 403617
are trademarks of Tektronix, Inc. Adobe and PostScript are trademarks of Adobe Systems, Inc. which
Design: Judith Bauer- may be registered in certain jurisdictions. FreeHand is a registered trademark of Aldus Corporation.
Stuchly Tektronix Inc. Macintosh is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. Novell is a trademark of Novell Inc.
PowerPoint is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
GR/E