Invert Color for printout

Question

Level 2

190 points

Invert Color for printout

Hello,

I thought I would ask the experts in this forum - I have the following problem. I like the chalkboard theme a lot and use it for giving lectures. The mathematical formulas for my presentations are created with Latex and have a white color. Now, when I want to make a printout I would like to invert colors in order to save on ink. I know that there is such an option in keynote, but it won't invert the colors of the formulas that are embedded as pdfs in the keynote presentation. Is there still any way to achieve this task ?

I tried importing into Adobes illustrator, but this would not preserve the original latex font and thus was useless.

Posted on Nov 17, 2005 4:00 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 17, 2005 2:46 PM in response to JoJoC

I ran into the same problem when putting in molecule drawings from ChemDraw that were white! The only thing that I found that I could do was use a color for them. That way when they printed out they would be either colored or black on a laser printer. Not a perfect solution--but my way to work around it.

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Answer 2

Kyn Drake

Level 7

21,597 points

Nov 19, 2005 1:28 PM in response to JoJoC

Something tells me the answer is going to lie in the Core Image Colorsync settings, but I can't figure out how to create a filter that would do what I want.

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Answer 3

JoJoC Author

Level 2

190 points

Nov 21, 2005 12:02 AM in response to Kyn Drake

Uff, that sounds tough - do you think that color inversion is a reasonable option and that it should be requested as a feature ?

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Answer 4

Kyn Drake

Level 7

21,597 points

Nov 21, 2005 3:15 AM in response to JoJoC

I've found that the way Apple does things with OSX is to give easy configurations to set things up but then make it configurable enough that you can do whatever you want beyond the defaults. For example, they have settings in there that ONLY work on the objects you're printing and not everything else, so if there was a way to just force that to invert, that would be white on black at least, and a decent start.

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Answer 5

JoJoC Author

Level 2

190 points

Nov 21, 2005 3:21 AM in response to Kyn Drake

Just to make sure I understand. You would advise me to play around with the ColorSync utility ?

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Answer 6

Kyn Drake

Level 7

21,597 points

Nov 21, 2005 4:20 AM in response to JoJoC

Yes, I tried some searching in Apple's developer area and on the web and the info didn't really help me to create a profile. As long as you make copies of the profiles already there, you should be ok. (I played around a little bit, but couldn't make it inverse! 😟 )

I also tried the colorsync discussions here, but couldn't find a primer on creating specific profiles...perhaps that was the wrong place to look?

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Answer 7

JoJoC Author

Level 2

190 points

Nov 21, 2005 4:29 AM in response to Kyn Drake

Kyn,

thanks a lot for looking into that matter - I have also done some playing in the first time, but haven't been successful. I will keep going.

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Answer 8

Sijmons

Level 4

2,095 points

Nov 23, 2005 2:03 PM in response to JoJoC

Jojo, you can try to make another template with a white background and use a style to colour your Latex text black.

Before you print, convert all slides to the new template. I have no Latex to try myself but you may have a go at it.

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Answer 9

JoJoC Author

Level 2

190 points

Nov 24, 2005 12:50 AM in response to Sijmons

It appears that your suggestion could work if the latex snippet was actually an object created within keynote. This lets you adjust colors and - supposedly - by changing style attributes also change the color through a style change. But the latex formulas are of the kind "droppedimage.pdf", which according to the inspector does not allow for a color change within keynote itself.

15 inch Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.3) 2 GB RAM

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Answer 10

Sijmons

Level 4

2,095 points

Nov 24, 2005 11:57 AM in response to JoJoC

Jojo, I think I have found a solution for you, although you may need to do it on each slide:

Open your pdf with the following free program:
http://www.belightsoft.com/products/imagetricks/overview.php

then use color invert and save (or copy / paste)

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Answer 11

JoJoC Author

Level 2

190 points

Nov 25, 2005 2:30 AM in response to Sijmons

Sijmons, many thanks for pointing this out to me. - This is a very interesting link. It appears to me that the app makes use of apples Core Image Units also explorable with their developer tool Core Image Fun House, for example. Unfortunately, both programs only export bitmap formats and I wonder whether Apple could make the Core Image Unit capabilities directly accessible to keynote.

The major drawback so far, however, is that there are no apparent scripting abilities in Image Tricks. I would need to convert page by page (as you have pointed out), which doesn't quite fit to my needs. Perhaps, there are other programs that could do the job and are apple scriptable ? I will try on that route.

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Answer 12

Sijmons

Level 4

2,095 points

Nov 25, 2005 3:59 AM in response to JoJoC

Jojo, I would be interested in that solution myself (unless it involves the purchase of some expensive professional drawing program).
May be OmniGraffle can do it, I know that is scriptable, not sure if it converts colours.
http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnigraffle/

Anyway, if you find a solution please post it so we can use it as well.

success !

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Answer 13

Sijmons

Level 4

2,095 points

Nov 25, 2005 1:06 PM in response to JoJoC

Jojo,
we have overlooked probably the easiest solution: built in in the Keynote print menu, see page 123 of the Keynote Users Guide.

IF that does not directly work with a black background, just change the theme on all slides to a white background and the manual promises that light text will be printed dark.

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Answer 14

Brian Peat

Level 6

18,216 points

Nov 25, 2005 8:47 PM in response to Sijmons

I thought the original problem was with a PDF object, not text, in which case that still won't work.

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Answer 15

Sijmons

Level 4

2,095 points

Nov 25, 2005 10:49 PM in response to Brian Peat

you're right, I had forgotten that.

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