Black - Color Question

[#41baby]

Hello,

I was wondering. Recently, I talked with a print house and they confused me. My default black (0,0,0,100) on INDESIGN was not coming out perfectly black when I sent it out as a PDF. I made another black (0,0,0,0) but my print house said not to do that as it is too black and printers will hate you.

Am I doing something wrong when exporting to PDF or how do I set my default black to the right black?

Thanks,

DN

[yesterday]

when you want to print a perfect deep black on a offsetprint, set your colors to this:

C: 80
M: 80
Y: 80
K: 100

cheers

[rAyVoLvEz]

did u check tat u are exporting in cmyk?

[rAyVoLvEz]

under output.. there's a conversion option in the export pdf option, check that your original black used is the 100%black with no other colours(0c,0m,0y,100k), you can either choose to export with no conversion or export to cmyk. after which, you can open ur pdf in photoshop to check via channels.

if you use the #000000 black, yes, printers will murder you, because they have to be vvv careful with de-registeration errors. I would presume tat ur print house prints on 1colour at one go. their machines shld be 1c i think.

[sinisterish]

Originally posted by yesterday
when you want to print a perfect deep black on a offsetprint, set your colors to this:

C: 80
M: 80
Y: 80
K: 100

cheers

It all depends on what's around the black as well mind. I've worked at both offset and digital and I think your figures may be a little high if there's any fine detail around. The weight of ink will flood anything like fine reverse print or lines within the black at 340%.

I've always found
C 70(+/-10)
Y 0
M 0
K 100

produces a very rich black, and with only 170% weight there's less risk of saturating the media or bleeding.
K100 tends to output as a 'flatish' black as I would call it.

[Cappy]

Good Sinista! Black is black and if you want a deeper black (illusionary) drop a 60% screen behind it. I would only recommend this if you have a solid area or a heavy typeface requiring a rich K.

In offset printing you have a black ink plate and it will only print as deep/rich of a K as the ink that is in the fountain. If you want a richer color then add a process blue screen behind the black. There is a split in the printing and design community as to the screen percentage and it ranges from 40% to 70%.

I have always found that 60% is more than enough and if you have a lot of solids with very few images in your piece you may want to look into using a dense black as opposed to a process black. Van Son, Handschy and other manufacturers offer this and you should discuss this with your printer as an option.

I have read so much about this as a concern amongst designers and it really isn't that big of a deal. Set your black as black and if you need a richer color then drop the screen behind it in your output.

To state the obvious: We design using "Light". The visual output that results from manufacturing uses the "Reflection of Light".

Talk to your printer. They are outputing your files and they know their equipment. Every printing press is different and every printer has a different way of doing things. Save yourself a lot of time and talk with your printer.

[gl4466]

I have to agree with cappy....I am a offset printing pressman by trade and a 60% screen of cyan(the blue used in 4 color printing)will print a rich black.
also...I wouldnt use a dense black in 4 color process....with experience I have found that a dense black will fillin(dot gain,smear the dots)when tring to achieve a rich black...hope this was helpful

[Leebolishus]

Definitely DON'T use

C: 80
M: 80
Y: 80
K: 100
It will come out like mud, it'll bleed and the paper will still be wet (ok not quite but that's a lotta ink!)

I work at a printing company and I do mainly high-end gloss stuff, and I find that 100K & 20-30C is plenty for a "rich" black!

Also depends a little on the paper stock you will be using.

But Cappy is right - each printer will be different - each printing press will be different - that's the printer's job to advise you on that stuff if you don't know.

I should mention that we have our own press and this is what works best for us.
Good luck!

[KRB]

Here are the settings for Rich Black that Ted LoCascio used in his InDesign video tutorial at Lynda.com.
http://movielibrary.lynda.com/html/modPage.asp?ID=189

Cyan 75%
Magenta 50%
Yellow 50%
Black 100%

The think the best advise is like Cappy and Leebolishus said, consult with your printer.

[Leebolishus]

Also, in my experience if you put too much Cyan in it tends to look a little blue, but as I said, those settings are what work for us, so it really is a little trial and error!