Edited by Brian Grainger: brian@grainger1.freeserve.co.uk

Peter Lawley pjl29@tutor.open.ac.uk wrote:

Could you tell me where I can get COMMODORE PRINTER IP3300 new print cartridges from? PC World don't want to know. Thanks.

I wrote back:

I've been looking through various catalogues of printer supplies and the Commodore IP3300 is not mentioned. I am afraid I have never heard of it either. Most Commodore printers were another make of printer with a Commodore name on it. If you know what the original printer might be it would help. I presume it is a PC printer but can you tell me if it is an ink jet or laser? I presume it is not dot matrix as you mention print cartridges rather than a ribbon. If an ink jet then a good company to try is System Insight, Tel. 01329 835500, www.systeminsight.co.uk, but even they may be confused by the Commodore branding. The catalogue I had from them mentioned many weird and wonderful printers but not Commodore. They do say give them a call if your printer is not listed but they only do inkjet supplies.

Followed by:

I've done a quick search from Excite and have found the following info:

In Reply to: Commodore IP3300 => Black ink posted by Mohamed F. on December 07, 1998 at 08:12:31:

: Hello I need information about "INK" for this printer!!! Because everywhere I go, they tell me that : this printer mark doesn't exist anymore!

: Can you help? P.S. I live in Holland!

De printer is onder de 'moterkap' gewoon een olivetti. Check printercartridges voor die. Type weet ik niet helemaal. Kijk op www.homeshop.fris.nl. Daar haal ik ze ook. Zij hebben ook printerkoppen voor het geval die stuk gaan. Suc6

Unfortunately I do not speak Dutch! However, perhaps the word Olivetti is a clue! Maybe the link goes somewhere that sells the ink.

Peter wrote back later:

Thanks for the info on inkjets for the Commodore IP3300 -
You were right about it being a Commodore label on an Olivetti and the recommended suppliers you suggested came up with a replacement first time in contrast to PC World who did not help!
Thanks again!

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Michael Scotter mike@scotter.netlineuk.net wrote:

I have an Epson Stylus Color 640 Inkjet printer. The colours it prints just don't coincide with the displayed colours on the screen. The blues, in particular, print much darker. The manual says nothing and I've looked through the colour management section of Windows 98 help but unfortunately I come from the planet Earth so am unable to understand or use it. As a measure of my frustration I've even tried the on-line Microsoft trouble shooters. No luck. Do you have any suggestions or can you at least point me in the right direction.

I wrote back:

First of all some text I have taken from the Color Guide that is on the Online Guide CD-ROM that comes with the Epson 640.

Quote

CMYK color model

Colors on self-luminous devices, such as televisions and computer monitors, are produced by mixing the three RGB primary colors, but color reproduction media such as printed matter and paintings work by absorbing some wavelengths and reflecting others.

The three RGB primary colors, when mixed, produce white, but the three CMY primary colors produce black when they are mixed together. Since actual inks will not produce pure colors, black (K) is included as a separate color, and the model is called CMYK. The range of reproducible colors is narrower than RGB, so when RGB data is converted to CMYK data, the colors seem dirtier.

Unquote

The essence is in the last sentence. The colours printed may look slightly different to those on screen. I created a test sample with MSPAINT. My 640 printed the colours reasonably well although I would say the colours are dirtier as described above. I have used 3 shades of blue in the test and I would not say the printout was darker on any of them. My monitor screen is set at 800 x 600 and 256 colours. My printer is set at default, 360 d.p.i. automatic color adjustment mode, microweave off and high speed on.

I did try changing the printer settings to custom and then choosing ICM mode but it did not make much difference to my test. It may be worth trying on your image as ICM is supposed to colour match to the monitor.

After receiving a page from Michael in Word 97 format, which used light blue, light yellow and light green I wrote:

I printed your page and it prints very dark on my Epson 640 as well. I ran some tests and found my suggestion last time of setting the driver to ICM mode makes a big difference. The blue and yellow is very much lighter and the green is better but not perfect. It has the drawback of introducing some banding but I guess it may be possible to get rid of that if you fully customise the driver. The Color Guide on the CD-ROM mentioned avoidance of banding I remember. The printer seems to brighten the colours in ICM mode by introducing some white dots between the coloured dots. Curiously, if one prints the same colours in MSPaint rather than Word this seems to happen in Automatic mode without the need to go to ICM. I do not think it will be possible to reproduce the colours exactly because they are almost luminescent on screen and that would be pretty difficult without luminous ink. I think you have to take a preference between what you have now and the ICM mode.