Inspiring

Pregunta

Best Screen Built Neutral Gray for Print?

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
November 20, 2018
2 respuestas
4937 visualizaciones

I'm working on an identity system for a client and I'm trying to pick a good neutral gray to go with PMS 301 Blue. The business cards, letterhead, and envelopes will all print in 4-color process. Some of the gray will be used for typography as small as 8 pt..

My initial thought was to use a 60 or 70% screen of black, but screened type is not as rich as a 4-color build. So basically, I need a good, neutral gray that's easily built out of 4-color process. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Este tema ha sido cerrado para respuestas.

J

Jeffrey_Smith

Community Expert

My suggested 4C color mix is 20C 15M 15Y 60K. And for print, always create this color using CMYK.

rob day

Community Expert

Hi Jeffrey, if the goal is neutrality, why would the built CMYK mix be better than 70%K where there wouldn't be registration worries or unwanted color casts if the press is not holding to the profile's gray balance?

Here SWOP Coated with the 4-color mix on the left and 72%K on the right—the appearance of the two colors is basically the same:

Stephen Marsh

Community Expert

There is a difference in the look of a single plate “stipple” vs a four colour “rosette” of AM screening. This is noticeable to the human eye at standard viewing distance for offset work that is “hand held”. Text/rules and large areas of flat tone will likely be perceived differently. Somebody outside of the print game may or may not notice or be able to articulate the difference. FM screening has it’s own set of pros/cons for large flat areas vs text etc.

The following image uses simulated Photoshop halftone (round dot 150lpi @ 2400ppi) to illustrate (a RIP preview would be better, but this is all I have at hand). I have shown 8pt type in serif and sans-serif, which is obviously different to a large flat panel of colour. Click on the image to view at intended size (or download and view in Photoshop).

BobLevine

Community Expert

Why not use another spot color and do it as a two color job? A spot will be much easier especially at that size since you won’t have to worry about registration issues.

Dov Isaacs

Legend

Building upon Bob's suggestion …

When dealing with a corporate identity, you must consider how it will be displayed and printed. Remember that a corporate identity will be used for much more than just envelopes, letterheads, and business cards. In many organizations, the logos are incorporated directly into the source documents (InDesign, Word, whatever). And of course, very few organizations can afford to print everything with spot colors. The fact is that PMS 301 (assuming you mean Pantone 301 Coated) is somewhat outside the gamut of CMYK process printing, yielding a fairly muted blue color when printed either with process CMYK on either offset or digital printers (either toner or inkjet). I suspect the client might not be happy with the results.

Bob introduced this issue, but in terms of detail – when you are getting into fairly small 8 point type, printing with more than one colorant can yield significant registration issues that will outweigh any benefits of a multi-colorant-based rich black.

Some thoughts to consider …

- Dov

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)

K

kcrossleyAutor

Inspiring

Gray balance is determined by the CMYK press profile. So if you start with a perfectly neutral RGB color, where all of the RGB values are equal, the converted CMYK numbers would change depending on the destination press profile. So for 100|100|100 RGB, Coated FOGRA39 converts to something like 56|46|45|34, while Uncoated FOGRA29 converts to 61|53|49|18.

The general rule-of -thumb for neutral 4-color gray is there would be somewhere around 20% more cyan in the mix, with magenta and yellow roughly equal, and the black amount determined by the profile's black generation, but you can see the uncoated example has less yellow.

So if you can trust the printer to properly color manage the output, the best approach might be to provide equal RGB values exported to PDF/X-4, and let the conversion happen at output where the CMYK profile should(?) be known.

but screened type is not as rich as a 4-color build

What do you mean by rich relative to a black tint? If you are trying to get absolute black on press, adding CMY to 100% black does affect the black value density, but I don't think that follows for black tints. In the bottom example I can find a black only percentage to match the appearance of the neutral 4-color mix 52|44|43|7, but need the extra CMY to get absolute black

Thanks Rob. I appreciate all of the good information. And yes, I've been screen building blacks for years.

In terms of the gray, do you think it would be a bad idea to use a 60 or 70% screen of black? It would make reproducing the text in a 4-color environment a lot easier, but I don't think it would look as good as a screen-built gray with larger graphics or solids areas of color.

[Update]

Actually, I just noticed your examples above and it looks fine. Perhaps a tint of red, but that's okay.

Regístrese

Social Login

Bienvenido

Social Login

Escaneando el archivo en busca de virus

Este archivo no se puede descargar