A method and apparatus is disclosed for mapping original colors of image elements forming a color image to colors that appear solid when reproduced on a color printer. The original color and the solid color of each image element may be defined by a subtractive mixture of cyan, magenta and yellow colorants. The method first determines whether the original color of each image element is a light color surrounded by a dark background color, or a dark color surrounded by a light background color. Subsequently, the cyan and magenta colorants of each original color determined to be a light color surrounded by a dark background color are minimized; and one of the cyan or magenta colorants for each color determined to be dark and surrounded by a light background color is maximized. Consequently, image elements having colors defined by the mapping appear solid when reproduced by the color printer.