I printed a flyer with a pure black text box and it came out looking like a gray puddle

So I was making this flyer for a local garage sale we're having this Saturday and I wanted the header to pop so I set it to 0,0,0,100 in CMYK. Big mistake. When the prints came back from the shop the black was all patchy and dull. My buddy who runs a sign shop told me I should have used a rich black like 60,40,40,100 to get a true deep black. He showed me his test prints side by side and the difference was night and day. Now I double check my blacks every time before I send stuff to print. Anyone else learn this the hard way?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_lee5d ago

Did that sign shop guy show you a side-by-side with just 0,0,0,100 too?

alicebarnes5d ago

You know, I used to think 0,0,0,100 was the right way to do black because it seemed so straightforward. But after I saw my own gray mess on a stack of yard sale flyers, I had to change my tune. Like @the_lee mentioned, the sign shop guy actually showed me that test print side by side with the 60,40,40,100 black. That really opened my eyes to how much richer and deeper it looks. Now I always warn people starting out in print design that the simplest settings don't always give the best results.