14 Evaluating color laser printers
between the printer, the computer monitor, and other input devices (such as scanners and digital
cameras) automatically, without the need to become a color expert.
PANTONE®* color matching
PANTONE®* has multiple color matching systems. PANTONE®* Matching System is very popular
and uses solid inks to generate a wide range of color hues and tints. After product introduction, see
www.hp.com/support/clj5550
for details on how to use PANTONE®* Matching System with this
printer.
Swatch book color matching
The process for matching printer output to preprinted swatch books and standard color references
is complex. In general, you can obtain a reasonably good match to a swatch book if the inks used
to create the swatch book are cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. These are usually referred to as
process color swatch books.
Some swatch books are created from spot colors. Spot colors are specially created colorants. Many
of these spot colors are outside of the gamut of the printer. Most spot color swatch books have
companion process swatch books that provide CMYK approximations to the spot color.
Most process swatch books will have a note on what process standards were used to print the
swatch book. In most cases, they will be SWOP, EURO, or DIC. To get optimal color matching to
the process swatch book, select the corresponding ink emulation from the printer menu. If you
cannot identify the process standard, use SWOP ink emulation.
Neutral gray treatment
This feature allows you to select the neutral gray treatment of either black-only or 4-color process
grays. Black-only can be selected to print black text, keeping the lines sharp and reducing the
impact of color plane misregistration. (No cyan, magenta, or yellow toners are combined to form
gray.) If 4-color grays are selected, black is printed using all four process colors (cyan, magenta,
yellow, and black), known as process grays. This selection is useful for printing photographs, since
it produces richer grays and blacks that blend smoothly with surrounding colors. This feature,
combined with Trapping, provides greater flexibility and quality.
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