Very inaccurate colors when printing from PPT...

[Bill Putney]

Using PowerPoint 97 SR-2. I typically insert several JEPEG's and add
autoshapes to point to details in the photos (pointing to defects in
manufactured parts).

The problem is that the colors come out weird on printed copy (printing
to Epson Photo 700). The strange colors appear on the
PowerPoint-generated autoshape boxes and text as well as the photos (for
instance, a green-filled autoshape box will appear blue-green; a black
part in a photo will appear brown). I have the Printer properties set
to match the paper being printed on. If I "File/Send to..." the same
PowerPoint file to MS Word, and print from Word, colors are accurate
(WYSIWYG on the monitor). It of course is a pain to convert everything
to Word to be able to get decent printouts because some manual work is
always necessary to format to the page, etc. to get everything to appear
the same.

In the case of photos, the colors print fine before being inserted to
PowerPoint (and as pointed out, if imported fromPowerPoint to some other
app). Nothing is wrong with the printer as the same photos print fine
in everything except PowerPoint.

TIA!

[Bill Putney]

I did an experiment to determine how print driver settings and type of paper affected print quality (color accuracy) and to see what interactions there were between applications and the print driver for 3 different applications (PowerPoint, Word, and PhotoWise - the s/w that came with the digital camera that took the photos).

The permutations of (1) application printed from, (2) settings (in print driver), and (3) paper type used for comparison are as follows:
Application        Setting                           Paper type
MS Word        Plain Paper                            Plain
MS Word        Photo Quality Ink Jet        Photo Quality Ink Jet
PhotoPoint        Plain Paper                            Plain
PhotoPoint        Photo Quality Ink Jet            Photo Quality Ink Jet
PhotoWise        Plain Paper                            Plain
PhotoWise        Photo Quality Ink Jet        Photo Quality Ink Jet

Some very clear and telling patterns fell out of the experiment:
1. Printouts from all three applications printing on plain paper with plain paper setting were indistinguishable from each other; colors were correct.
2. Printouts from MS Word and PhotoWise on Photo Quality Ink Jet paper with Photo Quality Ink Jet setting were indistinguishable from each other; colors were correct.
3. Printout from PhotoPoint on Photo Quality Ink Jet paper with Photo Quality Ink Jet setting were where the shift in colors occured.

Conclusion:
PowerPoint is doing some tweaking with other than Plain Paper setting of the print driver.  Apparently PhotoPoint looks at the print driver setting used and tries to make adjustments (unsuccessfully).  I confirmed this by also printing on plain paper with Photo Quality Ink Jet setting, and on Photo Quality Ink Jet paper with Plain Paper setting in each application to sort out what changes were due to paper and what changes were due to print driver settings.  Based on the results of that sub-experiment, it was confirmed that the color shifts were due to PowerPoint-driven adjustments that do not occur with either MS Word or PhotoWise.

Does anyone use PhotoPoint with any Epson Photo printers (certainly there has to be someone else out there doing that - the Epson photo printers are pretty common for people doing work with photos and graphics), and if so, do you observe the same things as I have, or do colors seem to adjust properly for the different print driver settings?  Feedback would help me determine if there is something peculiar about my setup or if, in fact, there is a bug in PowerPoint when printing with Epson phot printers in the higher quality settings.

The authors of PowerPoint apparently included compensations for the print deriver settings and botched it (at least for the Epson photo printers).  Can we assume that there was an attempt to include some kind of profile for various brands and models of printers with their various settings?

Anyone got some insight on this topic?

Bill Putney

[Roy Anderson]

Bill,

I often visit the "comp.graphics.apps.photoshop" newsgroup. It's a
great place, populated by Adobe scientists and engineers who KNOW
color and printing. (I use Photoshop 5.02 and an ancient Epson 600
printer.)

One of the major tips I learned from Chris Cox, Adobe's Chief
Color Scientist, is to turn off certain settings for Epson printers
to obtain best results when printing high-resolution images on
glossy photo quality inkjet paper. (I use Kodak paper.) By the
way, the last time I chatted with Chris, he also used an Epson 600.

Chris instructed me to modify "More settings" window selections
by (1) changing "Color Adjustments" to "No color adjustment"; (2)
deselecting "photo enhance" radio button; and (3) deselecting "ICM"
radio button. The intent is to aid you in obtaining prints which more=
closely resemble what what you view on screen. Of course, the major
assumption here is that your monitor is properly calibrated. Auto
settings are handy and easy, but they don't seldom produce the best
Photoshop output. (My personal observation, that is.)

Chris's tips certainly made a major difference in printing my Photoshop
images. Haven't tried printing PowerPoint images yet.

Good luck.

Roy

[Wbm5656]

I also have the 600 and tried printing a slide using both the photo quality
paper and plain paper settings (720 dpi settiing). My "more settings" were same
as you listed.

No noticeable color difference between the two, only the expected print quality
difference. Although the print drivers are probably very similar to the Photo
Epson, there may be enough of a difference to cause a problem.

Heck of note when a 3 year old printer is "ancient" isn't it?

WBM