• Adobe Illustrator

  CMYK black for colour (color) gradients

  Posted by Paddy Uglow on November 24, 2015 at 5:22 am

  Hi all,
  I mostly work for web but I’m doing some work for printing and don’t want to mess up thousands of fliers.
  Part of the design is a graduated fill from black to blue. When I first did it, the onscreen view went to a greyish shade between the black and blue. I fixed this by just setting K on the black to 100%, and C/M/Y all to 0%
  Will my black be black when printed? Or should I ignore the grey on the screen preview and do a “rich black” with CMY and K all at 100%?
  Thanks

  Paddy, CreativeMedia.org.uk

  Paddy Uglow replied 10 years, 7 months ago 2 Members · 2 Replies
• 2 Replies

• 

  Kalleheikki Kannisto

  November 24, 2015 at 8:04 pm

  You are correct in assuming that a gradient from blue to 100% with no other color will look somewhat washed out at the black end, and also throughout the gradient.

  A rich black, however, is NOT 100% of each color. It is impossible to print that color with offset (too much total ink on the plates) and can be challenging even digitally.

  A rich cool black is 70C 35M 40Y 100K. A gradient between that and your blue should yield a nice result.

  Also, a gradient with your blue at one end and your blue + 100% black at the other end would also work well. It will a rich “blue black.”
• 

  Paddy Uglow

  November 25, 2015 at 8:58 am

  Thanks for that – it’s looking pretty nasty on screen with the rich black values – your suggestion for the blue + 100% key works better, though I still see a middle band of a colour between the two end points.
  I think we’ll have a printing company selected soon, so I’ll get some tips from them.

  Paddy, CreativeMedia.org.uk

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