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Chris  P.  Bacon
Inspiring
November 17, 2022
Question

Black ink limit in press?

  • November 17, 2022
  • 4 replies
  • 1157 views

I have been warned of ink limits, when I said I am going to have black page background for my magazines.

Is that real?

Does it cost more or is it hardly possible or it's not true at all?

This topic has been closed for replies.

4 replies

Legend
November 17, 2022

Cheap paper (newsprint especially) can literally fly apart on a press if there is too much ink, causing it to disintegrate at the speed it runs. It could be maybe moving at 30 mph or more, and this is no joke for anyone nearby.  But there is no problem with solid black, if you get the ink mix correct (they would want you to use 100%K for cost reasons).

Brad @ Roaring Mouse
Community Expert
Community Expert
November 17, 2022

"Does it cost more or is it hardly possible or it's not true at all?"

If the printer you are dealing with estimates the job based on what you plan do do with it, i.e. you tell them you are going to have many pages of full-colour solid backgrounds, etc, they WILL estimate accordingly, as they add in the cost of a certain weight of ink for the entire job (normally based on an average coverage for the type of content. i.e a full colour job will obviously involve more ink than a black-only text-based document).

rob day
Community Expert
Community Expert
November 17, 2022

Also, for images the ink limit is handled by the destination CMYK profile on a color conversion, so if you are converting to CMYK either in Photoshop or on a PDF export, it would be important to know what CMYK profile to use for the conversions so that you don’t exceed your printer’s TAC and create a drying problem—for example the default US Web Coated SWOP has a limit of 300%, while US Sheetfed Coated allows 350%.

 

Once you are in CMYK mode in either InDesign or Photoshop the assigned CMYK profile doesn’t prevent you from color correcting to, or building CMYK values that exceed the profile’s limit. The assigned CMYK profile also displays the expected difference between black only and black with CMY. Here is Coated GRACoL 2006 with InDesign’s Appearance of Black Preference set to Display All Blacks Accurately :

 

 

 

Chris  P.  Bacon
Inspiring
November 17, 2022

Thanks.

But when I said black page backgrounds, that's not that bad as it sounds in terms of drying problems, because the overall deep black background per page will be only about 20-25% of the page surface, because I will have to use black text, and all that black text surface will need some color background other than black. Plus the surface of the images. Example:  

So even though the page background will be black, text shapes plus images , plus even some small amount of white text directly on the black background without any background shape, will only leave about 15-20% of the surface in deep black, more like a black frame than a black background.

I shouldn't worry for drying issues or cost for 15-20% of deep black per page, right?

After all, art prints and comics and other graphics heavy publications have almost 100% ink coverage on the pages, only that less black, so how come they don't get the drying issues?

Chris  P.  Bacon
Inspiring
November 17, 2022

Does deep black require more ink per area than other colors?

Brad @ Roaring Mouse
Community Expert
Community Expert
November 17, 2022

It has nothing to do with cost but rather the reality that paper can only soak up so much ink. The generally accepted standard is about 300% or so, depending on the paper. Glossier stocks have less ability. So, yes, it is preferable to have a "rich" black for large background areas, you just have to make sure the combination of CMYK inks does not exceed that limit. for instance 40C 30M 30Y 100K gives a nice rich black in print, but totals only 200% ink. A dark black in a photo may convert to something like 75C 65M 65Y 85K after it goes through color management.