One aspect of the present invention is a color printing system that is responsive to color information for forming images on media. The color printing system includes a determining device that determines colorant usage for a plurality of colorants. The determining device detects a balanced condition wherein colorant usage is within a nominal range and an imbalanced condition wherein colorant usage exceeds the nominal range. The color printing system also includes a colorant balancing device. The colorant balancing device responds to the imbalanced condition for altering colorant usage for compensating for the imbalanced condition.