Conversion to grayscale for Laser Printing

Hi Everyone,

I am considering the best practices for producing high-quality plots for
publication. I would like to be able to use colour and and transparency
for screen viewing, but also want to ensure that the graphs print well.

The typical problem I run into is using colors for data curves. When printed
on laser printers, these curves become halftone grayscale which appear very
"blurry" compared with the pure black curves.

I would like to develop a set of practises that will allow me to specify
two types of colors - those for data that should be rendered in true black
(but perhaps with varying line-thickneses corresponding to the original
darkness) when printed, and those for shading, axis frames etc. in the
background where blurry halftones are acceptable.

Has this topic been discussed anywhere? I know of several threads discussing
general conversion to grayscale, but nothing discussion the issues of blurry
halftones when printing.

Thanks,
Michael.

Refs:
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.python.matplotlib.general/5479/focus=5484
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.python.matplotlib.general/28576/focus=28578