This happens all the time with digital "presses"/color printers. The root of
the problem is in the software. There are two parts to the problem.
First is Publisher does everything in RGB unless you first convert the
document to process color (Commercial Printing tools menu). If you convert
your publication under commercial printing to CMYK AFTER you have created
the publication, then all of your black and gray objects are going to be
converted to four color (and poorly at that) which will give you the same,
if not worse problems. And any color objects are going to come out looking
like hell. Not all printers understand that 0R, 0G & 0B is actually solid
black and that 128, 128, 128 is 50% black and that 255, 255, 255 is 0% black
otherwise known as "white". "White" not necessarily being a real color but a
familiar way of describing "no color".
The second part is the controller software that is either in the Ricoh or
attached to it. That can be a combination of your printer driver and the
computer inside the Ricoh. When you print to your printer there is language
sent to the printer that says "Hey, this is a color document". The
controller thinks "great, color, no problem!". The controller tells the
printer and the meter(s) to grab the toner just like it normally would. But
what about black objects? Because the job came down and was announced as
being color the controller is not necessarily smart enough to know that a
black only page (or what appears to be black only, see above) should trip
the counter for black only. Sometimes the printer controllers or engines,
are smart enough to know the difference, usually not though. There are
devices from Xerox and Konica that can take a four page brochure and print
the first side (outside back and outside front) page in color correctly and
print the black and white inside pages (pages 2 & 3) as a black only page
and bill for the job as 1 color click and 1 black click.
So what can be done about your problem. For your issue you either need to
print the color pages in one batch printed as color, and then print the
black only page as a black and white job (you should be able to define that
in your printer options), and then collate and staple together. Yeah, a lot
of work. I've had to do it too... Maybe there is a sympathetic print shop
that has a collator that can insert, fold and staple for you. Otherwise you
just have to pay the color clicks.
I would suggest you speak to not only your Ricoh sales person but the field
techs themselves or an applications specialist. The field techs may not be
able to help with the printer driver options but they should be able to tell
you if the Ricoh is smart enough to differentiate pages in a "mixed mode"
job like your example. The sales rep should be able to bring in an
applications specialist to get you some training (usually gratis) for jobs
like these. But he also should be able to discount the clicks for this job
as a one time courtesy.
This is a very common problem, especially with Microsoft Office documents,
but also with "professional" applications. The problem truly lies in the
printer drive, printer controller and the imaging engine itself. Xerox has
started to address this in their imaging engines. But there are a lot of
older devices that suffer from this problem. You either pay the extra charge
on the clicks, or you run it as separate jobs and collate. Either way you
pay...
Matt Beals
(e-mail address removed)
