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gabr_ru
Participant
June 2, 2023
Question

why doesn't the color 100% K (black) match the color guide?

  • June 2, 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 755 views

Could someone help me understand why the black color does not match the color guide?

sending a job to the graphics the printed color was a brown even though it was only set to 100% K.

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2 replies

Ton Frederiks
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 2, 2023

In your Color Settings you have as Color Management Policies for CMYK set as Convert to Working Space.

This gives the risk that a 100% black gets converted to multiple inks.

Community Expert
June 2, 2023

If you're working in CMYK mode a 100% K ink is definitely not going to give you a deep black color. It's going to be a dark gray or, as you say, a dark brown. What you want is a "rich black," which means a deep black color made with all four CMYK ink colors. There are various rich black formula combinations of CMYK ink colors with the percentages adding up to a total ink value: the percentage number of all CMYK ink percentages added together. One is C:75, M:68, Y65, K:90, which adds up to 298. That's a good rich black value. Some people like C:30, M:30, Y:30, K:100, but that only adds up to 190. Definitely do not do 100% on all four CMYK values. That would be really bad when output on something like a thermal inkjet printer (we're talking ink literally dripping on the printed substrate). Depending on the printer and its settings, some print devices will detect a one ink 100% K black color in artwork elements and automatically boost it to rich black values. But, generally speaking, it's usually best to apply the correct CMYK color values to the artwork.