Getting the most out of your Cost Per Page Contract - Are you printing True Black?

Are you being charged for color pages when your printing black-and-white?

Your color printing device prints the color black in one of two ways: composite black or true black. The below side-by-side comparison simulates the difference you might see in your printed output between the two.

The cyan, magenta, yellow, and black toners are all combined to create composite black. Composite black is typically used when printing photographs. This is also used when printing gray scale.

Only black toner is used to print true black. True black is normally used when printing a combination of text and graphics.

Under certain conditions, applications and PDF files may print black areas using composite black. Composite black is often desired when rendering photos in order to achieve smooth color transitions within shadow regions. However, there are times you may want to ensure that only black toner is applied. For example, small text will appear sharper when printed using only black toner or true black.

Many color printers automatically attempt to use composite black for images, and true black for text. Of course, the application and the document being printed must identify items as black in order for the printer to apply black toner. For example, some PDF files and older versions of Adobe Reader may attempt to influence color matching, making it difficult to ensure true black is applied.Depending on your device, many of these settings can be adjusted in the print driver.

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