Print colour different to screen

[D Wood]

I am starting to use colour printing more these days for presentation - viewports of the model for instance. However, the colours on the prints are different to what I see on the screen - they are duller, with a green bias. White brick facing for instance prints as a dull greyish green, quite boring in comparison to the screen image, and shadows are blurry.

Has anybody any experience in co-ordinating Vectorworks with Mac OS and HP printers to get true (or at least truer) colour rendering? I'm using ordinary roll paper - should I be using some special paper?

[Ray Libby]

You might want to try calibrating your monitor.

http://spyder.datacolor.com/product-mc.php

Monitors can show colors off.

You can also calibrate your printer, a search on google.

http://www.google.com/search?q=calibrating+printers&rls=com.microsoft:*&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1

Paper can make a difference, you should probably be using coated paper.

Edited April 16, 2008 by Ray Libby

[brudgers]

I had this problem printing directly from vectorworks to my HP Laserjet 2605dn. [thread "don't it make my red car blue"]

When color is important (and when isn't it?), I export to PDF and print the PDF.

This fixes the color problem on the output side.

Since Vectorworks is the only app where I've seen this problem, I don't think it's a pure calibration issue...i.e. it appears to be an application issue not a driver issue.

[D Wood]

Ray & Brudgers

Thanks for your suggestions.

The problem is not that I'm getting blue when it should be red (to borrow your analogy), and I get the same result when I print as .pdf (both save as and export and print).

I have tried printing individual viewports as A3 size to my Epson printer, and the result is also exactly the same - white brick prints as greyish green (or greenish grey, same diff). The sky background is fine - blue sky, white clouds, but it's as though there is a green filter over everything modelled.

It looks like the colours are being outputted incorrectly, or both printers need precisely the same adjustment.

Is there colour adjustment available within Vectorworks?

[D Wood]

Now I'm wondering if the green filter effect is to do with the light source I am using - I notice the Light Source tool has color options.

What settings are best for the tool when replicating the sun, or are the default settings for the sun?

[D Wood]

If you'll pardon the pun, light is dawning.

The answer is in View>Lighting> Set Layer Lighting Options. Boost ambient level, change to Daylight temperature instead of Mixed.

I use Julian Carr's Heliodon sun program, but the VW sun tool is probably similar. I boosted the Sun Brightness as well which gives darker shadows, and suddenly the model is in bright sunshine. It still has a green tinge when printing so maybe I have to play with the colour mix.

Hope that helps someone else.