Photoshop Ninja
Expert Photoshop tips and tricks for designers and photographers since 2005
Better CMYK black printing
Have you ever noticed that areas of pure CMYK 100% black doesn’t seem to be that, well…black when printed on some printed jobs, especially on uncoated stock?
This is particularly noticeable in large printed areas of flat black but there is an easy way to fix this, just throw some more colour into the mix!
There is a lot of debate amongst print artworkers over what gives a perfect black, some preferring a cyan mix, but personally I prefer magenta, I feel it warms up the black making it look richer – so I recommend the CMYK mix of 0/60/0/100. Obviously, if you prefer cyan, just switch the my 60% value from magenta to cyan.
Also, have you ever noticed that Photoshop’s default black is a rich CMYK mix of black of (Apple+D reset colour swatches). I don’t know why Adobe don’t put this in as a preference, I guess they will get round to it eventually! This is a big one to watch – especially when importing images from Photoshop into InDesign or other DTP applications. If your matching up what you think is a black area of an image from Photoshop onto a pure Black (0/0/0/0) rectangle in say InDesign, your gonna have a nasty shock when it goes to print! This can, of course be used very creative subtle effects when used right… But when used wrong it can be disastrous!
When using commercial print, care should be taken if you have ‘reversed out’ white text in these areas, especially if set in very small point sizes. Any misregistration of the printing plates will fill in the text – this goes for any multichannel colour backgrounds.
This rich black should also not be used for small ‘body copy’ type text, the pure black mix of 0/0/0/100 should always be used, especially on white backgrounds. Again, any slight misregistration of the plates will ‘double print’ your text giving it a nasty fuzzy look!
(7 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
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Written by Jonny Allbut - freelance graphic designer
Last modified: 4 July, 2006 (11:27) | First published: 4 July, 2006
Filed under Techniques - Print 22 Comments »
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Comment by Nicky
February 1, 2008 @ 11:16 am
Hey Jonny!
Thanks for posting the black “recipe” – you did tell me once but I have been searching for the scrap of paper I wrote it on ever since! Really useful stuff as I am a real of fan of rich black backgrounds.
Comment by Tobbe
September 8, 2008 @ 10:33 pm
Man! You made my day. Was looking for that for some days now. Really crazy that the pro’s at the copyshop had no idea about this issue.
Comment by Mark
October 3, 2008 @ 3:23 pm
A better “recipe” is 60/40/40/100 it gives a much richer black and doesn’t look as cool as the 60% cyan.
Comment by admin
October 15, 2008 @ 2:11 pm
@Mark – this could cause problems with ink limits and mis-registration in certain situations – as stated in the post I actually prefer 60% magenta to ‘warm’ it up personally too!
Pingback by The Professional Designers Guide to using Black | RGB, CMYK, Rich, Cool and Pantone Black | Andrew Kelsall | Graphic Designer | Logo, Poster and Large-Format Print Design
January 30, 2009 @ 2:23 pm
[...] Photoshop Ninja | Better CMYK black printing [...]
Comment by Daniel
March 3, 2009 @ 5:35 pm
Personally I use c30 m30 y30 k100. A very good creamy rich black. I have even used it on small type and it appeared fine.
Comment by Photoshop Ninja
March 3, 2009 @ 6:34 pm
You would have to be careful using that mix, as ANY tiny mis-registration in the print process would cause you a-lot of problems. This would be especially problematic with very large print runs in commercial print.
Comment by Lind K Kerr
August 26, 2009 @ 5:19 pm
I am a professional printer. I have worked in the print industry for the last 30 years or so. You guys are speaking of Rich Black, the appropriate mix runs the gamut from shop to shop. The best all around mix would be 30C 30M 20Y 100K. I personally leave the Y out whenever possible, especially digital printing. The yellow has the greatest possibility of “muddy-ing” the color. Also, adding a stronger mix is not to your advantage, it can actually “ruin” a job. You are correct to not use this color on anything except large blocks of Black.
Comment by Photoshop Ninja
September 28, 2009 @ 2:00 pm
Thanks for the info Lind, it seems a-lot of different people have different opinions on a rich black mix! I prefer not to use too many colours to combat mis-registration.
Comment by Ray Martinez
October 30, 2009 @ 3:53 pm
Normally I used C=35, M=45, Y=35, K=100 the result is a rich black but friend of mine toll me about this formula C=45, M=35, Y=35, K=100 work as well
Comment by CS
December 9, 2009 @ 10:04 pm
Is your 0/60/0/100 formula good for gloss stock postcards? (C1S Gloss stock)
Comment by Photoshop Ninja
January 15, 2010 @ 3:44 pm
That would give a nice black in my opinion, although there are some other thoughts in the comments which are interesting.
Comment by DK
January 26, 2010 @ 7:11 pm
Hello. One question. I have a psd document with multiple layers using black color, but not rich black. Everything looks fine on my screen but my worry is that when it goes to print possible various degrees of black may become apparent or an overall greyish black will result. I would also like to change all the black levels to be a deeper black, possibly using your rich black recipe of 0/60/0/100.
My question; Is there an easy way to just convert all blacks to a rich black? What about using a “create profile” and creating a “custom cmyk”. Anyone know how to do this without worrying? My guess is that I could do this, and then mask out any areas where the rich black seemed to do unwanted changes to peoples faces, etc. Thanks
Comment by Chris Lambe
February 19, 2010 @ 12:36 am
Nice to know that i am not the only one looking for the right formula. Though i have been told that the 0/60/0/100 is good. I have a problem! for a lot of my work i use photoshop and when i am creating a black backing (main area) i try this formula and it always looks like a dark burgundy red!!
Is this a problem that i only have? But when i put in another formula for eg: 30C 30M 20Y 100K it looks a nice bdeep black!
What to do? Do i go with what looks right on the screen? Or go for a formula that a lot of people recomend (dark burgundy) and hope for the best?
Comment by Photoshop Ninja
March 4, 2010 @ 11:45 pm
Yup, should be fine!
Comment by Photoshop Ninja
March 4, 2010 @ 11:48 pm
That’s a tricky one, your blacks almost certainly will not match up, but depending on type/usage of image you probably will be ok.
In short there is no easy way to adjust different black levels across multiple layers.
Comment by Photoshop Ninja
March 4, 2010 @ 11:54 pm
Yea, it can look a little strange onscreen due to RGB, when printed in CMYK is DOES give a nice black though… If worried throw a little cyan in there (30%) but watch small type!!
Comment by noa
April 26, 2010 @ 5:24 pm
Thank you, I’d just have to experiment. A bit off topic, but in a way not really: the comments are extremely hard to read, alternating between dark grey and white on light grey background. Black text (and a lighter background) would be much appreciated.
Comment by alphonse
April 28, 2010 @ 4:00 am
Thanks for the post! I am new at sending thing to print, and i need to send an ad to a magazine. i want a rich black so i used 40/0/0/100 but when i export the TFF from illustrator and open it in Photoshop, the black doesn’t look black at all but look like a very dark blue. is that only a screen preview problem or when the print the magazine it will look like that?
Thanks!
Comment by Photoshop Ninja
April 30, 2010 @ 2:52 pm
Good point! I am going to be redesigning this whole site later in the year and wil certainly bear this in-mind!
Comment by Photoshop Ninja
April 30, 2010 @ 2:54 pm
Check you have your colour profiles and monitor calibrated. You should also re-read my article, I actually prefer around 0/60/0/100 (which replaces your cyan with magenta to give a warmer black).
Comment by Chris Lambe
May 26, 2010 @ 11:37 am
Many thanks for the information, worked perfectly by adding that little extra).