The dancing robots organisation

Today I’m gonna tell you about different types of black in print design.

Have you ever noticed how a printed black is not always as black as you wanted it to be ? Well that’s because there is a difference between the black you see on your screen and the black you print.

Let me introduce you to Rich black. Rich black is the normal black (like in cmyk) but with an added color, the result is a deeper black.

Let me show you :

Now let me explain a little bit about these, the first black (100%K) is the most used and softest. The next one is called warm black (100%K 100%M) when you use this one it probably for a design that sends out comfort or luxury. The top right is called cold black (100%K 100%C) it’s the opposite of warm black and is best used for designs that promote cleanness or high class style items. The next one is also the less used (100%K 100%Y) and is general seen as ugly so it’s best to avoid this one.

Now the next 2 are the most interesting, The blackest (100%K 100%M 100%C 100%Y) is called true rich black and is unprintable because it will drown your paper and will ruin your prints (even on a laser printer!). Now the last one is called rich black and is the best one for the job if you just want a good deep black, the rule of the thumb here is to not cross the line off 250%.

You can fiddle about with the mixtures of the inks and get very interesting results