Grayscale & Halftone Printing

I get very good results with RGB to CMYK conversions using Photoshop. I am satisfied with the final halftone reproduction compared to the image that I see on the monitor 99.9% of the time. I do not get the same results with grayscale images reproduced as halftones. While they are not true grayscale prints, the inkjet prints of grayscale images that I print from Photoshop always look good. However when I see the final publication 20-30% of the halftone images will look dull. Is there some way to better visualize with Photoshop what a grayscale image will look like when printed in halftone?

Mostly, the Gray Profile is the problem. Don't use just the convention
Gamma=2.2 or the guess DotGain=20%, but a reliable profile, which
is derived from the CMYK profile for the final process. For instance:
Edit > Color Settings > Load > Select U.S.WebCoatedSWAP
As a result you'll get the Gray Profile
Black Ink - U.S.WebCoated (SWOP) v2
Now choose this profile by View > Proof Setup > Custom and work
with Soft Proofing: View > Proof Colors.
Make the gray image either by Grayscale, followed by contrast and
brightness adjustments.
Or use Image > Adjustments > Channel Mixer, mode Monochrome.
I don't trust the grayscale workflow at all. InDesign doesn't honor
Gray Profiles (but it doesn't ruin the image, it just shows the result
sometimes wrong).
Therefore I would paste the optimized Grayscale into the K-channel
of an otherwise void CMYK image. Thus we get a compatible CMYK
file for the hopefully correctly assumed CMYK process.
One can find excellent advice in this book:
Dan Margulis , Photoshop Lab color.
http://www.amazon.de/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?__mk_de_DE=%C5M%C5Z%D5%D1&url=search-alias%3Daps&fie ld-keywords=Dan+Margulis+Lab&x=0&y=0
I'm still working with CS2. I would be glad if somebody could correct
me, if the guidelines should have changed meanwhile (e.g. InDesign's
sometimes wrong gray preview)
Best regards --Gernot Hoffmann

Similar Messages

Halftone printing on Epson NX625 colour printer

I need to print grayscale halftones from my colour Epson printer. I have converted the photos to grayscale by changing the mode in Photoshop but the Epson printer still prints with 4-colours. I would like to screen them into halftones for printing and ultimately photocopying. Is this possible on the Epson NX625? I am running OS X Lion version 10.7.2 on iMac 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5. I can't seem to resolve this with Epson support.

I need to print grayscale halftones from my colour Epson printer. I have converted the photos to grayscale by changing the mode in Photoshop but the Epson printer still prints with 4-colours. I would like to screen them into halftones for printing and ultimately photocopying. Is this possible on the Epson NX625? I am running OS X Lion version 10.7.2 on iMac 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5. I can't seem to resolve this with Epson support.

Problem with colorized grayscale TIFF printing as solid color fill

I have a grayscale TIFF that was created in PSD CS5, placed into an AI CS5 file and then colorized with a PMS color. The resulting effect on screen is correct, but when I go to print, it prints a solid (100%) fill of the PMS where the TIFF image should be. I have double and triple checked to make sure the TIFF is grayscale, and I have also played around with various Transparency Flattening settings in AI (both in the file, and in the print window). Nothing seems to work. I even tried a work-around by creating the TIFF as a monotone PMS in PSD, and again it places properly in AI and looks good up until printing when it outputs as a solid 100% PMS. The grayscale TIFF prints correctly from AI if it's NOT colorized, but the minute I add color, it prints as a solid fill. The monotone PMS TIFF never prints correctly from AI. I'm out of good ideas (or any ideas, frankly).
Any ideas as to what I'm doing wrong? Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!

Make sure you are not placing the image into a rectangle, similar to InDesign image placement. The .tiff should be placed as a single element. Then, select just the .tiff and assign a fill to it.

How do I set the FireFox browser to be compatible with my Brother MFC-8840D printer so it will translate color into grayscale when printing from a webpage?

Hi, I have a question about setting the FireFox browser so it is compatible with my Brother MFC-8840D printer to print in grayscale. Currently, if I print anything in color, like a Google Map, the colored parts of the map show up blank, whereas the color should change to grayscale in a black/white laser printer. Brother tech support told me to contact Mozilla about this issue.
In comparison, when I print a Google Map on my dad's HP printer (also using FireFox browser), the color map prints perfectly in grayscale, so I can see all of the street lines.

The Firefox 3.5.x branch has reached end-of-life and is no longer maintained.<br />
You will no longer receive security updates.<br />
You can update Firefox via "Help > Check for Updates" or download and install the latest Firefox 3.6.x.<br />
Firefox 4 and later require at least OS X 10.5 and an Intel Mac.
* http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/4.0/system-requirements/
If you have problems with updating or with the permissions then easiest is to download the full version and trash the currently installed version to do a clean install of the new version.
Download a new copy of the Firefox program and save the DMG file to the desktop
* Firefox 3.6.x: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-older.html
* Trash the current Firefox application to do a clean (re-)install
* Install the new version that you have downloaded
Your profile data is stored elsewhere in the [http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox Firefox Profile Folder], so you won't lose your bookmarks and other personal data.

Color .jpg/.gif images in the .CHM and true (4BPP/8BPP) grayscale in Printed Output?

I do all my document creation in RH first, then output
WinHelp and to Word 2003. I want to keep color images in the CHM
and have a majority of the images become true monochrome grayscale
in the Word doc.
Yes, Word does have a nifty "grayscale" optopn for each
image, but it leaves the color "channels" (24BPP) and so our color
copier still prints page using all CYMK colors (and it never seems
to get "true" grays anyway...)
If I could somehow get monochrome grayscale images in RH,
where there is already color ones - I could save as "monochrome"
and "color" outputs.
Any ideas, hints, batch files, suggestions or comments?
Thank you!

On second thought... it's the Fiery controller in the copier
that's doing all the deciding on what's what, and unfortunately
"that's not my department", so at this point, the question here is
moot - it's not a RH issue.

How can I get my HP Photosmart 210E to print on black and white or grayscale only.

I have tried to several times change my advanced settings under preferences to grayscale only printing and I continue to get color prints. what can i do to correct the problem. I do not see a message that says apply only OK when I change the settings to grayscale

Hi there feranski,
This article should cover the issue you are experiencing. Give the steps outlined a shot and let us know if it helps.
Best of Luck!
You can say thanks by clicking the Kudos Star in my post. If my post resolves your problem, please mark it as Accepted Solution so others can benefit too.

HP Deskjet 5100 Stuck on Grayscale - Color Management Options unavailable in printer settings

Hello!
My printer is an HP Deskjet 5100 on Mac 10.8.5. It is stuck on grayscale when printing. No matter what program I try to print in I do not get the color management option, even when checking in the advanced options.
On photoshop it's also stuck to grayscale.
I have printed a test page successfully in color. But for some reason no program will print in anything but grayscale.
I have tried to update the drivers, but according to the HP website/driver check everything is up to date.
Other information:
In printer options, I can't even check my cartridge levels. I receive the following message: Information Not Available
In ColorSync Utilites, under Devices, it says Printer Mode is: "Gray". When I try to assign a different color profile to it, it doesn't take.
I have done a hard reset on the printer.
I have removed completely and resynced the printer with the computer again in System Pref/Print & Scan
Any information would be amazing. I have checked every forum I could find online,
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Hi,
Your printer is not compatible with Mountain Lion, therefore the Mac use a Generic PCL driver which is Black & White driver only:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01856359&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&product=304431&task...
You may try a 3rd party driver as HPIJS, it seems to support your printer and will more likely provide you a better results than a generic driver.
Be sure to install any of the 3 required downloads before adding the print queue:
http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/openprinting/macosx/hpijs
Shlomi
Say thanks by clicking the Kudos thumb up in the post.
If my post resolve your problem please mark it as an Accepted Solution

Grayscale printing RBG

I work in the creative department for a newspaper. We currently use ID4 for the layout of ads and Quark 6 for the layout of news pages. We're having issues with grayscale ads printing RGB in our newspaper. When the ads are built within ID, each element is grayscale. The ad is then exported as a grayscale eps and imported into Quark.
This doesn't happen with every grayscale ad on a color spread. It's very random. All of our computers are calibrated with the same settings. Has anyone had similar issues? or can anyone point me in the direction to figuring out what's going on?

Nobody around here is fond of .eps. First thing is to be sure you aren't doing some sort of color conversion during the export -- ID doesn't support grayscale profiles and treats grayscale images as if they are on the black plate of the current CMYK space.
Second thing is whay use the .eps? Have you tried putting PDFs into Quark? I know there are some CID encoded font problems, but I don't think they would be eliminated by using the .eps format if you are in fact using Unicode extended characters (though I could be mistaken about that). I'd probably print to PDF rather than export in this particular circumstance, and start with the PDF/X-1-a preset.
Peter

Acrobat grayscale images editied in photoshop convert to rgb when brought back into the pdf file.

After I edit a photo using the object touch up tool in photoshop CS6 and bring it back into acrobat as a grayscale halftone all works fine till I print. It prints on multiple plates. When I edit it again in photoshop the halftone has turned into RGB. It happens every time. I assume there is a color setting in acrobat that is doing the conversion from grayscale to RGB but I don't know where to look. This has worked fine for years and has only recently stopped working. By the way I'm using acrobat pro.

It's really necessary to know by which program you had created the PDF.
Here comes a test PDF for questions like yours, created by InDesign:
http://docs-hoffmann.de/riptest05072013.pdf
Different images:
sRGB, pRGB=ProphotoRGB, CMYK , all with individually embedded profile,
Grayscales: without embedded profiles, because InDesign doesn't embed gray profiles,
Lab: without profile, because Lab is automatically detected and not ambiguuos.
Of course, using so many different images in one PDF is useful only for tests.
An actual test:
Touch Up Object Grayscale and edit in Photoshop. There is no embedded profile
but the image is in PS detected as Grayscale. One has to assign a profile.
Re-imported in the doc, it is a Grayscale JPEG*, before it was a Grayscale ZIP.
In Acrobat 8 one can check the actual content of a PDF by
Advanced > Print Production > Preflight
In newer versions this is still available but somewhere else.
I'm using version 8, because I uninstalled X on purpose.
Best regards --Gernot Hoffmann
*Edited:
As far as I remember, there is no special code for Grayscale JPEGs, it's just a JPEG
with zeros in the Cb Cr channels ... like an R=G=B gray image.

How do I change my HP 2540 to print in color

How do I change from grayscale to print in color on HP 2540?

Hi,What operating system you are using? What application you are printing from?

Can't print scanned pdf files Xerox 3450 Adobe Pro and Reader 9

I have a user that cannot print PDF's made up of scanned images to a network printer.
The job goes to the printer and spools up but hangs at either 64kb or 255kb and then errors out.
Even if I print just one page, it does the same thing.
Folks with Acrobat Pro 8 or Reader 8 can print the same file to the same printer with no problems.
OS: XP
Network Printer: Xerox Phaser 3450 PS
Adobe: Reader 9.1.3 and Acrobat Professional 9.1.3
I have tried the following:
On the Xerox 3450 PS Printer:
- disabling Advanced Printing Options
- changing Post script options to: EPS, optimize for speed, optimize for portablity
- reloading the printer drivers
- unmapping/remapping the printer on the customer's system.
In the Reader and Acrobat Pro print options:
- print only Document rather than Document and Markups
- print as image
- unchecked 'convert to true type1'
- changed options to Send for each page, send by range,
- tried using Language level 2
- reinstalling Adobe Reader 9
This happens once the customer is upgraded to Adobe Reader 9. If I disable the 'Advanced Printer options' he can print OCR/Text PDF files but cannot print even a single page Scanned image PDF file. The spooler hangs at 255kb and then the print job errors out.
I confirmed this same issue on multiple machines and on other Xerox 3450 printers on multiple print servers. It is the same for Adobe Reader 9 and Adobe Acrobat Pro 9.
The machines and users are in different parts of the country on different print servers but the symptoms are the same: after being upgraded to Adobe Reader 9.1.3 or Adobe Acrobat Pro 9.1.3 they cannot send certain PDF files (so far just scanned image files) to a Xerox 3450 PS network printer.
Any suggestions on what to try next would be appreciated.

This problem plagued me for several weeks, until I found a solution that has allowed me to print scanned documents as quickly as a text document.
I have confirmed this worked on several network X3450 printers using Adobe Reader 9.1.3 and Adobe Acrobat Professional v9.1.3
In the Reader and Acrobat Pro print options:
    Click on the Advanced button and uncheck "Print as image" if it's checked.
    Click on "Let printer determine colors" to enable this option
    Click OK and Print.
After making this change, the document queued up and printed as fast a any text document printed.
I had a single page scanned text document which was about 19 KB, but when sent to the printer, the spooler grew from 10 MB to 50 MB to 80 MB, until an error occurred. Like you I tried many combinations until one worked. Then it was a matter of figuring out which setting was primarily responsible for allowing it to print quickly.
Most likely the problem is with the raster image processor (RIP) within Adobe Reader and Acrobat. By selecting the option to "Let the printer determine colors", it passes that part of the processing over to the RIP within the printer. Since the X3450 is not a color printer, the information is easily converted to grayscale and printed.
I'm still trying to absorb the information in the articles I have read so far, and I welcome any discussion about this from those more knowledgeable than I.
I hope this fix works for you as it did for me. I made a lot of happy customers once they were able to print since most of their documents are scanned rather than created with Acrobat.

Can't get proper HP printer settings dialog, only featureless generic Windows Print settings.

So I have an HP Deskjet 3050 J610, connected via wifi. I can print from it just fine, but I only have the standard Windows printing options, which are very limited. I don't get any color options, or printing on both sides, or anything like that. Basically my only options are "print in grayscale" and "print in Max DPI". So I presume I am using generic printer drivers, instead of the proper HP drivers. I remember I once had it working right, and it had a nice HP dialog with pictures that would ask me if I want to print for a presentation, or draft, or print on both sides, etc.
But I already have the proper HP drivers installed. So I run "HP Deskjet 3050 J610 series.exe" in the HP printer drivers folder. I click "connect to a new printer". I click 'wireless'. It finds my printer. I select it under "model name", and press 'next'. It sets up the printer properly, but when I try to go and print with it, I'm still presented with the crippled generic windows print dialog!
How do I get the nice HP drivers settings dialog back again?
EDIT: I'm on Windows 8.1 Preview. I have also tried to set up the printer on a Windows 7 laptop, using the same driver download from the official HP website, and that laptop too also only gets to use the generic windows printing dialog! What am I doing wrong?

bonsguy wrote:
the same info is not under Help or in the Pages manual under printing options.
Perfectly normal.
The Print dialog doesn't belong to Pages but to the operating system.
So, it's use is described in the operating system help.
Here is an example of what we may find in this help :
Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) vendredi 10 juin 2011 16:13:18
iMac 21”5, i7, 2.8 GHz, 4 Gbytes, 1 Tbytes, mac OS X 10.6.7
Please : Search for questions similar to your own before submitting them to the community
To be the AW6 successor, iWork MUST integrate a TRUE DB, not a list organizer !

Black psd image prints gray from ID

Using CS4 on Mac 10.5
I was provided a black-and-white AI image with some white fills, but I need all whites to be transparent, so I opened the AI image in PS (rasterizing). I deleted the white fills, filled all black areas with 40,40,40,100 and saved as .psd. Placed the file in ID and it prints gray. ID file is CMYK, and will be printed on a color laser printer. I've both "exported" the file out of ID, and printed to a pdf file. Same result.
Here are all of the options I've tried:
Rasterize .ai, .eps and .pdf file in PS (all created with AI)
Rasterize at 300, 600 and 1200 dpi
change mode to bitmap
change mode to greyscale
Save PS file as .psd
Save PS file as .eps, where I chose "transparent whites" (this was my first choice, but the image, when placed into ID, prints as a grayed out box with a big X, even though, in ID's print dialog box, my graphics in "output" are set to "all")
Save PS file as .pdf (figured, what the heck!)
I made a new "black" in ID with values of 40,40,40,100, and all print black, except this silly image!
Is there another way to do this? The white fills in the original AI file are there to cover up black parts, so I can't really eliminate them in AI... Or at least I don't know how to. I tried saving a new .eps file in AI, choosing transparent whites, but the white fills are still there when placed into ID.
Help!
Thanks

I responded via email earlier, but it didn't take.
>>First, the white areas that cover other parts of the graphic -- is there some background color that needs to show through those areas in ID? If so, can you use the Illustrator pathfinder to make a compound path and knock out the holes?
Yes, there's a transparent gradient under the graphic that needs to show through in ID. Tried pathfinder/compound path option, but I couldn't get it to perform as expected. I believe I know how to use compound paths, as I practices with simple objects I drew. There are many white areas I want knocked out, and the original artist (unknown to me) seems to have already used compound paths in some spots.
>>Second, what color is the graphic in Illustrator? Just white for coverup and K? Or is the black in Illy a rich black? Are you trying to print this in a rich black to match other rich black elements, or just becasue 100% K seems washed out?
AI graphic is rich black. Want all blacks to print rich black in color laser output.
>>You said you saved the file in Photoshop as both grayscale and bitmap mode. ID can colorize bitmap mode, and non-transparent grayscale, but both of those will wind up putting white back into the transparent areas you just made, so that would be a complete waste of time. Transaprent grayscales will print only K. Did you try saving as a transparent .psd in CMYK mode with things colored in rich black?
Just now tried as instructed in last sentence above. No color printer at hand, but pdf output shows white edges on all black parts when viewed at 100% in Acrobat. When I enlarge to 800% view, white edges disappear, so this may have worked. Will confirm after accessing a printer after 3 days at coast (ahhh!).
However, I'm concerned the finished graphic will be vaguely screened, due to its CMYK nature. Would normally use bitmap for this black and white image.
Image proved too complex for cutting and pasting from AI to ID.
>>Are you working in 16-bit color mode in Photoshop?
Image in 8-bit color mode, as 16-bit is generally too complex.
Thanks for your detailed response. I like how the Forums generally provide.

Problem with Color Print in Illustrator. Photoshop fine. Epson R2400

OK.. I’ve spent all morning trying to troubleshoot bad color on Illustrator CS4 to Epson R2400 and can’t find a solution. Mac 10.5.8
I’m getting off color (but a neutral grayscale) when printing to from AI 14.0 to Epson Stylus Photo R2400. This just started today. The graphic prints fine in Photoshop.
The main color in logo is R-125, G-69, B-73 in sRGB editing space. It prints very magenta from AI to Epson 2400. Prints fine to my HP laser and fine to PDF.
I’m not new to Color Management and I’ve double-checked all the usual suspects.
Recalibrated Monitor
Re-installed Epson print driver (v6.57)
checked ink nozzles
Checked color settings (synched in Bridge to NA Gen Purpose 2)
checked proper document and printer/paper profile are selected (sRGB to Matte HW)
checked Relative Colorimetric
in Printer dialog checked proper Media Type selected (Epson Matte HW)
and that Color Settings were set to No Color Management.
trashed AI Preferences.
I’m using Epson Inks and Papers.
Same image prints fine from Photoshop using same color settings.
any other ideas?
Thanks much.
Charles

Yea! Working today. One of these things did it, I think. (unfortunately, I did not test after each one)
Recalibrated monitor, again
Trashed Epson Printer Utility from its Utilities folder
Reinstalled Epson driver, again
Deleted all my Presets in the OS Print Set Up dialog box.
So, one of those things helped, or benevolent weekend gremlins.

Black and white printing using Gutenprint

My HP printer has no drivers in SL, but I can print using Gutenprint.
The Gutenprint FAQ says
For most users, the work-around is to set the Color Model setting to Grayscale. This is not the same as printing in black and white only, but it may give you what you want.
For those users who must use black and white only, the good news is that the Quartz Filter for Black and White still exists. It's just not tied into the print window. The easiest way to use the Black and White option is as follows:
Go to print the document. Use the item "Open PDF in Preview" item under the PDF Services drop down menu at the bottom left of the print window.
When the document appears in Preview, choose Save As... from the File menu.
You can either change the name or use the Replace option when prompted. Select the output format as PDF and use the Quartz Filter to select "Black and White".
Make sure you have the name and location to save the document as you want it. Click the Save button.
The resulting document will be in Black and White and you can print it normally.
I can guess what this means, but I am not certain, so I would be glad if someone has a definitive answer.
My guess is that Grayscale usually prints using the colour cartridge, but that following this procedure lets one print using the black cartridge only.
This is an important issue. Given the cost of colour cartridges, I only want to use them when I need colour, not for plain text.
I would also be interested to know the difference between the two colour modes available, labelled Color and CMYK, but this isn't so important.

Welcome to the Apple Discussion boards.
The product brochure for the DP-C213 shows that PostScript is an optional add on. Are you sure that you have the PostScript module installed? Without the optional PostScript module, you will only get the raw PostScript code when you use the PostScript driver.
The Gutenprint generic PCL drivers do not print color. They are grayscale only.
The product brochure for the DP-C213 does show that it comes standard with the PCL 6 printer module. The best color driver would be the pxlmono/pxlcolor driver. You can download all you need from http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/openprinting/macosx/pxlmon o. You will need to install three packages. The pxlmono, Foomatic-RIP, and the Ghostscript package.
Now for the confusing part. When you go to set up the printer use the *"Generic PCL 6/PCL XL Printer Foomatic/pxlcolor (recommended)"* driver. That will give you color printing. The OpenPrinting database is in error and only shows your printer to be a grayscale printer, so you *do not* want to choose the "Panasonic DP-C213 Foomatic/pxlmono (recommended)" driver. That driver will only produce grayscale printing.
EDIT: The URL for the product brochure is ftp://ftp.panasonic.com/pub/Panasonic/business/office/brochures/DP-C213_Brochure .pdf
Message was edited by: Matt Broughton

Grayscale & Halftone Printing

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