Greyscale Colors, Which Do You Use

[tahoebrian5]

It looks like greyscale is the way to go. I tried to fight it! Anyway, other than a trial and error method, is there any guide or resource to determine what the different line colors will look like plotted?

[Gawdzira]

It varies so much based on your printer/plotter. I have drawings set up so they print well on my HP110 but if I send a job to the UPS store they are too light. Trial and error. One thing I try to do is use the stock colors that are clickable in CA. I used to make custom colors but that is a waste of time and I have heard that CA performs best with their stock colors.

[DRAWZILLA]

I try to keep colors on the dark side, b/c the light ones won't print good in grayscale, they could disappear.

[Electromen]

In the professional photography world, color and shades of greyscale are calibrated to an ICC Profile. (International Color Consortium)  

A  spectrophotometer like a ColorMunki Design is used to calibrate both the computer monitor and printer/plotter.  Other devices are used to calibrate a camera for each lighting change.

 

I own a ColorMunki, my monitors and printers are calibrated to an ICC Profile, their color and greyscale are dead on.  All ICC Profile calibrated devices will match.

[Electromen]

Another variable from printers/plotters could be the paper being used.  Each paper requires a custom ICC Profile for each printer.   The profile must be selected during the print process.    The same printer, with two different papers, will produce varying color and shades of grey unless they are calibrated/profiled for each paper and printer combo.

By the same token, the same paper could give varied results from different printers unless they are profiled.

[keithhe]

In the professional photography world, color and shades of greyscale are calibrated to an ICC Profile. (International Color Consortium)  

A  spectrophotometer like a ColorMunki Design is used to calibrate both the computer monitor and printer/plotter.  Other devices are used to calibrate a camera for each lighting change.

 

I own a ColorMunki, my monitors and printers are calibrated to an ICC Profile, their color and greyscale are dead on.  All ICC Profile calibrated devices will match.

Wow, I read this twice and still pretty sure this may not be in English. No idea what this means.

[Electromen]

Wow, I read this twice and still pretty sure this may not be in English. No idea what this means.

The XRite ColorMunki is a device that sells for about $450.  You hang it on your computer monitor and it adjusts the color.  Then it prints a sheet with many colors.  You use the same device to scan it.  Now your monitor and printer match. They also matches every other calibrated monitor and printer.

[tahoebrian5]

Wow, that is way more info then I knew was out there. Good to know and probably a must have for doing accurate color schemes.

What I'm getting at is much simpler.. Just what colors give a 60% transparency for example. In autocrash I used 10% thru 90% for different things and it really adds a lot to the presentation if done right.

[JMarkey]

I've seen references to ICC a couple of times when I was playing with printer settings....now I know who to go for help if I ever need to be dead on for colors.  For now I'll continue to use stock colors as previously mentioned.  It never ceases to amaze me how much expertise is available on this forum!!