We investigate the effects of metallicity on the broad-band photometric colors of late-type giants, and make a comparison of synthetic colors with observed photometric properties of late-type giants over a wide range of effective temperatures ( K) and gravities (), at and -2.0. The influence of metallicity on the synthetic photometric colors is small at effective temperatures above ~3800 K, but the effects grow larger at lower Teff, due to the changing efficiency of molecule formation which reduces molecular opacities at lower . To make a detailed comparison of the synthetic and observed photometric colors of late type giants in the -color and color-color planes (which is done at two metallicities, and -2.0), we derive a set of new -color relations based on synthetic photometric colors, at , -1.0, -1.5, and -2.0. These relations are based on the scales that we derive employing literature data for 178 late-type giants in 10 Galactic globular clusters (with metallicities of the individual stars between and -2.5), and synthetic colors produced with the PHOENIX, MARCS and ATLAS stellar atmosphere codes. Combined with the -color relations at (Kučinskas et al. 2005), the set of new relations covers metallicities (), effective temperatures K ( K), and gravities . The new -color relations are in good agreement with published -color relations based on observed properties of late-type giants, both at and -2.0. The differences in all Teff-color planes are typically well within ~100 K. We find, however, that effective temperatures predicted by the scales based on synthetic colors tend to be slightly higher than those resulting from the Teff-color relations based on observations, with the offsets up to ~100 K. This is clearly seen both at and -2.0, especially in the and planes. The consistency between -color scales based on synthetic colors calculated with different stellar atmosphere codes is very good, with typical differences being well within K at and K at .