Blacks are a tricky business. They look the same on screen and without the proper knowledge, they can cause big dramas in print.
There is a different black for every purpose.
Here are a few – with an explanation as to how and why I would chose them for your print job.
A quick explanation of the print process (I’ll go into more detail in a future blog post):
When your full colour job goes off to print, the printer makes aluminium plates for each colour. The graphics are negatives of the print run and are made up of thousands of tiny half tone dots. Each colour’s dots run in slightly different directions to ensure an even ink coverage. The clarity of print relies on these colour plates being lined up perfectly. While most printers do a very good job – this alignment is rarely 100% perfect. It’s worth noting that printing via offset will give you clearer, crisper results than a digitally printed job.
100K – 100% Black
You would expect that setting an area of colour to “100% K” would result in a dark black. It’s 100% black right? Unfortunately it is not this simple. 100K when printed is in fact a very dark charcoal grey – and when compared to a “rich” black can appear very lack-lustre.
Good for body copy text or fine linework. 1 single colour plate making the image means you get clear, crisp type and lines.
Not so good for Large areas of coverage. The colour is not very strong and having only 1 colour down can result in slightly uneven coverage.
Rich Black
Rich black is created when you use more than 1 colour to make up the black. Most printers and designers have their own “standard” rich black that they work by. My printer of choice recommends a rich black of 50C, 100K – and strongly discourages the addition of any further colours.
Good for Large areas of coverage. Using two colours ensure you get a rich “shoe polish” black with even coverage.
Not so good for body copy text below 12pt font or fine linework. If the two colours are slightly out of registration the text can become a little blurred and hard to read. It can be done on certain stocks and when printed via offset
PS Black
RGB 0,0,0. When converted to CMYK in Adobe Photoshop gives a reading of C75, M68, Y67 and K90. Every colour is used and in high volumes. This black gives 300% ink coverage.
Good for Web design and in print on large areas of flat black that do not feature fine details.
Not so good for Absolutely to be avoided for use in 12pt font or fine linework. Trying to align the four print colours to get a clear print result is virtually impossible.
Problems caused by using the wrong blacks:
As most blacks look the same on screen, I must be very careful in my artwork preparation to ensure that I am using the correct black to match associated images.
Without this attention to detail, issues can arrise like the one below, where the box surrounding the image does not utilise the correct black and the difference shows at the press.
I found this example in a local magazine where someone had tried to print a Photoshop black shape with small, fine white text. As white text requires the paper to show through, and the plates have blurred this clear space, the result is something that is nearly impossible to read.
