If you try to add a CMYK profile to printer in Windows XP there will be an error message that it is not supported by printer and you will know that only RGB printer profile is required.
However if you try to do to the same on Windows Vista / Windows 7 you will get no error and even if printer is RGB you will be able to add CMYK profile.
So the question is: How to determine if printer can work with either profile RGB ir CMYK?
P.S I’m looking for something like Eye-One Match 3 that allows you to see if you have RGB or CMYK compatible printer. Since Eye-One Match 3 does not work without measurement device it can’t be used for this purpose. But perhaps somebody knows a utility that does the same???
In almost all cases, an RGB profile is used if you are printing through a printer driver, while a CMYK profile is used if you are printing through a RIP. Theoretically it is possible for someone to make a driver that will allow access to all four CMYK inks separately, I suppose.
One easy way to check this would be to send a CMYK image to the printer, without color management, and see if the colors come out clean or if something in the process re-arranges the color. We like to use a CMYK image that is composed of only K ink and is a smooth gradient from black to white. Print something like that and see if there are any other colors mixed in there besides black. If so (and if you have turned off color management in the printing) then your printer is effectively an RGB device, since you don’t have control over K separately. If it comes out with only black then you have a CMYK printer. Oftentimes a CMYK image will not be printed at all - and that is further confirmation that you have an RGB device.
Well thats a great idea but I was looking for a way that a non technical user let alone without knowing how to tweak printer driver could check to see if his printer is RGB or CMYK.
By the way laser printers are CMYK so telling everyone something like I read on some sites “if you have 4A printer its RGB device” is wrong.
Why the heck nobody (big companies like Xrite, Chromix etc.) do not make a simple free utility? Like Eye-One Match 3 that allows you to see if you have RGB or CMYK compatible printer.
