Color printing problem (PC only, Mac OK)

[Scott K]

We're having a problem with printing to an HP2500CP
plotter from Powerpoint (XP or 2003) from a PC. The
problem does not happen when printing from a Mac. We only
see the problem when printing what are called flourescent
photomicrographs which are black backgrounds with red or
green or orange subjects that are fairly dark and quite
saturated. The screen images of these have a very solid
black background. If the photomicrograph is saved from
Photoshop as an EPS with Postscript color management
turned on, it prints OK. An EPS with PS color management
turned off makes the image print with too light a
background (looks like a gamma correction). JPEGs print
the same incorrect way. All these images print fine from
a Mac, screw up from a PC. We've updated the Postscript
driver to the latest one for Win2k from the Adobe site, no
help. We've tried tweaking all the advanced settings in
the printer dialog box, no help. The printer is captured
to a Win2k Server print queue and we have the same problem
printing directly to the printer from the server.
It seems that this may be a Postscript print driver issue -
anyone have any suggestions? As I don't get by the group
very often, please email suggestions to
skilborn_at_wfubmc.edu. Thanks.

 

[christinaworks]

The color sync or color management software that is on your mac can be
downloaded and installed on your pc.
http://www.pantone.com/support/support.asp?idArticle=72&

this site can help you find the industry standard profile for your
equipment...to be used with special calibration software and harware that
reads your screen and reads your proof to match it all up.

christina

 

[Scott Kilbourne]

It is only the EPS files that have Poscript Color Management turned on that
are printing these photomicrographs correctly. EPS files with the above PCM
turned off, JPEGs and other files all print the same, lighter shade. When
we print through our color management software (iQueue from Gretag-Macbeth)
using custom printer profiles, they ALL print "incorrectly". In reviewing
the EPS files, there is a difference in the Postscript header between the
PCM on and PCM off versions that seems to relate to the color rendering. So
I think it's more of a Postscript driver problem than a pure color
management problem. But we can try Colorsync on the PC... Thanks.

-Scott

 

[PPTMagician]

It's is a PostScript problem with the W2K printer
drivers. We had the exact same scenario, same problem. I
opted to change to the non-postscript drivers for the
printer, but the results still weren't very satisfactory.
Ironically, the previous version of the W2K PS driver
worked well, but I didn't keep a copy.

A bit more info about PowerPoint and color calibration is
at: http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00448.htm

HTH,
Glenna