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christophers17576472
Participant
November 21, 2018
Answered

A warning about using blending modes and black!

  • November 21, 2018
  • 2 replies
  • 403 views

Hello all,

I just wanted to provide a warning about an issue that can arise when you're using blending modes and black with the intent to print, because this almost bit us in the a**

What happened is this:
In order to get a good visual effect simulating printed white ink, I used 100%K text and the "Screen" blending mode. You can see the results here. But when you combine that with InDesign's "Overprint [Black] Swatch at 100%" setting, you get this little nugget. If we'd gone to press, this is what we would have ended up with.

The quickest "solution" I found was to set the text to 99%K in order to keep it from being set to overprint (because manually turning on overprinting for all the black text is not really a fix), but I'm posting this as a question because I'm wondering if there could be a hotfix overriding the Overprinting of [Black]

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Colin Flashman

My answer is effectively the same as what Bob said, but I'll elaborate...

The dialog in the preferences specifically says "Overprint [Black] swatch at 100%" but note that is for the default colour Black in square brackets. You can create a second black in your swatches with any other name (I normally call mine Knockout Black) and the value is C0 M0 Y0 K100. This swatch will NOT automatically overprint because it is not the [Black] swatch, it is its own swatch.

Have a read of this article for more information: https://indesignsecrets.com/make-a-knockout-black-that-does-not-overprint.php

2 replies

Colin Flashman
Community Expert
Colin FlashmanCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
November 22, 2018

My answer is effectively the same as what Bob said, but I'll elaborate...

The dialog in the preferences specifically says "Overprint [Black] swatch at 100%" but note that is for the default colour Black in square brackets. You can create a second black in your swatches with any other name (I normally call mine Knockout Black) and the value is C0 M0 Y0 K100. This swatch will NOT automatically overprint because it is not the [Black] swatch, it is its own swatch.

Have a read of this article for more information: https://indesignsecrets.com/make-a-knockout-black-that-does-not-overprint.php

If the answer wasn't in my post, perhaps it might be on my blog at colecandoo!
BobLevine
Community Expert
BobLevineCommunity Expert
Community Expert
November 21, 2018

Did you enable overprint preview before sending the file out? That should have shown you the problem.

You can turn off overprint black or you can do what's been advised since InDesign was released back when dinosaurs ruled the earth...create a second black swatch which you can use when you don't want to overprint.

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