User guide

Prism Printer Color Basics
The Prism Printer, like most color printers, create colors based on the C(yan)
M(agenta) Y(ellow) color model (shown at the right). The CMY model is called a
subtractive color model because the
addition of each new color absorbs (or
subtracts) light waves from light that it
reflects. Cyan, magenta, and yellow are
known as subtractive primaries, and
correspond to the color panels on Prism’s
multicolored ribbon. Red, green, and blue
are their complements, and are created by
combining two of the primaries. Black is
the combination of all three primaries.
These seven colors represent the seven
basic colors on Prism’s color palette.
Color Separation
When you print a color label with the Prism Printer, the label is split into three
separations; one for each colored panel on the multicolor ribbon. The separations
represent how each of these subtractive primaries (cyan, magenta, and yellow)
contributes to create new colors. With each pass, the Prism printer prints one of the
colors on your CD. The order of printing is yellow, magenta, and cyan.
The figure on the right shows the color
separation for a colorful soccer ball. You can
recognize the soccer ball in each separation,
but you can easily notice that each
separation highlights different parts of the
ball in different ways. As hard as it is to
believe, a single pass of each color will
produce the ball at the bottom of the figure.
If you were to view the ball under a
magnifying glass or a microscope, you would
see that each color consists of tightly packed
dots. Each dot will be one of only seven
colors (cyan, magenta, yellow, red, green,
blue, and black). Any other color that you
see from a distance is an illusion that is
created by dithering. Dithering is the
process of creating a great number of colors
from a limited palette of colors. For
example, if you look closely at the dark
yellow or light orange in the figure, you
would see a pattern of yellow and red dots.
Those red dots are actually where magenta
and yellow dots share the same position.
From a distance, where you can no longer
see individual red dots, your eyes perceive
the pattern of yellow and red dots as a color
that is almost orange.
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