Druckerfarbe vs Druckfarbe

Question

Consider the sentence:

Die Aufgabe des Technikers ist es, die Fahrkartenautomaten mit Geld, geeignetem Papier und Druckerfarbe zu versorgen.

My spellchecker did not know Druckerfarbe and offered Druckfarbe as a substitute.

Duden says that Druckerfarbe is a synonym for Druckfarbe. However, I think that the first can potentially refer to the color of the machine itself, while the second relates to the color of the printed stuff or to the color used for printing in any case. After all, to draw an analogy, Himmel(s)farbe is the color of the sky, and Druckergehäuse is the casing of a printer, so, by analogy, Druckerfarbe should at least allow for the meaning "color of the printer".

Now, I think that the right term would be Drucktinte or Druckertoner anyway, since the color is an abstract concept, while the ink/toner are chemical substances which can run out and which one can replenish or not replenish. What do you think would be the right term in the above sentence?

Answer 1

I disagree with Druckfarbe and Druckerfarbe being Synonyms. While you may be right that Druckerfarbe could describe the color of the printer itself, I have a different understanding:

In my opinion, Druckfarbe is the color in the printed document, while Druckerfarbe is the actual color in the cartridges of the printer. For example, the Druckfarbe may be green, but to achieve this in the printed document, you need to mix the yellow and blue Druckerfarben.

But who am I to disagree with the Duden...

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PS: There also is the word "Druckerschwärze", which translates to (printer's) ink, which to me seems to be analogous to Druckerfarbe.

Answer 2

I also disagree with your spellchecker. Druck is mostly used for industrial size printing in big volumes, so Druckfarbe would accordingly mean sizable amounts of color unlikely to be carried by one person.

Drucker, formerly mostly labelling a person working there, now shifted towards smaller printing devices, sitting besides your desktop, built into a ticket machine or similar. Druckerfarbe would therefore most likely address an ink jet cartridge. (A ribbon type color as needed for an impact printer would typically be called Farbband.)

Druck may also specify the end product, the printed matter, but I rarely hear this for output of the personal device (here typically Ausdruck is used). On the other hand your text seems a bit dated anyway, since all ticket vending machines I freshly remember use a thermographic process not requiring printing color of any kind.

Answer 3

Farbe in German covers

• color (red, green, yellow) and
• media that carries the pigments (toner, ink, ...)

Druckerfarbe could thus possibly mean:

• The color your printer has (how the printer case is painted)
• The color of your ink/toner/whatever that the printer is using
• the ink/toner/whatever consumable itself that is used to print

Drucker refers both to the typesetter/printer profession (not included above, because that's unlikely) and the thing that prints - the printer.

Druckfarbe would normally mean

• The color you are printing in (red, green,...)
• The media that carries the pigment for the printing action

Druck is the action or the result of printing (Beyond that, it could also mean pressure, but that's unlikely here as well).

As you can see, with Druck[er]farbe we have two compound substantives that could actually mean every possible permutation of the meanings of their parts - Thus, everything else you need to derive from the context. Most likely in your context, the consumable used by the printer (device) is being referred to. And that would be, according to my experience, definitely more Druckerfarbe than Druckfarbe, but both would be valid and understood.

Answer 4

In wenigen Kontexten wird die Druckerfarbe tatsächlich die Farbe des Gehäuses bedeuten. So wie eine häufige Autofarbe Schwarz ist, ist Beige die häufigste Druckerfarbe.

Die Aufgabe einer Frauenbeauftragten könnte es sein, für eine pinke Druckerfarbe zu sorgen oder generell Pink als Druckerfarbe zu verhindern - das ist noch nicht ganz raus, was da das richtig wäre.

Vom Kontext ist aber klar, dass in

Die Aufgabe des Technikers ist es, die Fahrkartenautomaten mit Geld, geeignetem Papier und Druckerfarbe zu versorgen.

nicht die Farbe des Geräts gemeint sein kann, das im Automaten verbaut ist.

Druckerfarbe ist das, was man nach der Wartung an den Händen hat. Was auf dem Fahrschein zu sehen ist, ist dagegen die Druckfarbe, die, wie schon Thorsten Dittmar erklärte, als Mix beim Drucken entstanden sein kann und die so niemand in den Drucker gefüllt hat.