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M
MAStephens
Known Participant
October 25, 2021
Question

Rich dark grey for text - CMYK

  • October 25, 2021
  • 1 reply
  • 4297 views

Printing (offset) on quality Silk finish C2S. I want the text to print a rich dark grey (80% black). I don't want a flat or washed out black. The job is printing on the opposite coast from me so testing and adjusting is unfortunately not an option. I'm worried about the grey having a color cast towards blue or brown. Anyone out there have formula they've used successfully. 

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1 reply

S
SJRiegel
Legend
October 25, 2021

If the color of the text is critical, you best best is going to be paying for a spot color ink. Text printed with a process mix is likely to print looking a bit blurry, due to the limitations of print registration. (Unless all of your text is quite large sized)

    M
    MAStephensAuthor
    Known Participant
    October 25, 2021

    Thanks, Can you please educate me here - If I decide to just give up on the grey text and go with regular ol black, will it not print in rich black, so also 4 plates (and the registration issue) The text is 11 point and light btw 

    Dave Creamer of IDEAS
    Community Expert
    Dave Creamer of IDEASCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 25, 2021

    No--regular black in a CMYK document is just that: black only. 

    You can create a "rich black" a number of ways, such as 40C / 40M /40Y/ 100K. This is used for large black areas including large type sizes. 

    Registration is ONLY used when creating special printer marks for separation such as crop marks and fold lines. 

     

    You may be thinking of RGB Black (black used in an RGB document)--that will print out as a CMYK black unless fixed in Acrobat. 

    David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)
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