freakyclean
05-17-2002, 04:36 PM
Too much black? This is a problem I ran into a little while ago when designing a yellow pages ad. For the yellow pages there are very strict limits on files and what you can and can't have.
First of all I will go over some background stuff.
Different type of paper will only accept so much ink, this is called total ink limit. At a certain point they will just not accept more ink and you will have a big mess on your hands. Most papers will not accept more than 300% ink. That is no more than 100% of three colours on top of each other. This applies to both spot colours and CMYK colours. Some papers will only accept 150% total ink. What this means is that you are limited when using really dark colours. Most of the time though colours that add up to more than 300% all look the same. Other side effects of too much ink are paper cracking when folded and binding glue not sticking, these can cause major post printing problems. These problems can occur on just about any kind of printer from inkjet to laser to offset press.
Ink never dries. Yes it is true, ink never totally dries. You can test this with money if you like. If you take a bill and a white piece of paper and rub them together you should get ink transfer onto the white paper. This is particularly important with business cards. If you have very dark colours and lots of them on a business card they will smudge when stuck in a wallet for several weeks. An application of varnish on the press will help prevent this but it almost always happens eventually. Smudging is not as noticeable on other pieces as they are not rubber together under pressure the same way as business cards.
Now back to the yellow pages thing. I had done a single colour (black) ad about 1.75 by 2.5 inches with a tiger logo and two lines of text set in impact. I got the ad returned saying there was too much black. Seeing as this was the only colour I couldn't understand this. With yellow pages because the paper is so light and because it is printed on a web press they have tight standards to prevent going over the total ink limit and causing smudging. You can only use full black if your font size is under a certain point size determined by the size of your ad. Also if your ad is more than 25% black then your have to screen it back. What I had to do was make the entire ad in 60% black instead of 100%. How this will come out will depend on the press. The web presses that they use for the yellow pages have a dot gain of up to 25%. What this means is that a 25% black could come out as 0% (invisible) or as much as 50% black.
The moral of this I guess is to check the file requirement before you start work (though in this case I did and I got 2 pages of specs which I didn't interpret properly).
First of all I will go over some background stuff.
Different type of paper will only accept so much ink, this is called total ink limit. At a certain point they will just not accept more ink and you will have a big mess on your hands. Most papers will not accept more than 300% ink. That is no more than 100% of three colours on top of each other. This applies to both spot colours and CMYK colours. Some papers will only accept 150% total ink. What this means is that you are limited when using really dark colours. Most of the time though colours that add up to more than 300% all look the same. Other side effects of too much ink are paper cracking when folded and binding glue not sticking, these can cause major post printing problems. These problems can occur on just about any kind of printer from inkjet to laser to offset press.
Ink never dries. Yes it is true, ink never totally dries. You can test this with money if you like. If you take a bill and a white piece of paper and rub them together you should get ink transfer onto the white paper. This is particularly important with business cards. If you have very dark colours and lots of them on a business card they will smudge when stuck in a wallet for several weeks. An application of varnish on the press will help prevent this but it almost always happens eventually. Smudging is not as noticeable on other pieces as they are not rubber together under pressure the same way as business cards.
Now back to the yellow pages thing. I had done a single colour (black) ad about 1.75 by 2.5 inches with a tiger logo and two lines of text set in impact. I got the ad returned saying there was too much black. Seeing as this was the only colour I couldn't understand this. With yellow pages because the paper is so light and because it is printed on a web press they have tight standards to prevent going over the total ink limit and causing smudging. You can only use full black if your font size is under a certain point size determined by the size of your ad. Also if your ad is more than 25% black then your have to screen it back. What I had to do was make the entire ad in 60% black instead of 100%. How this will come out will depend on the press. The web presses that they use for the yellow pages have a dot gain of up to 25%. What this means is that a 25% black could come out as 0% (invisible) or as much as 50% black.
The moral of this I guess is to check the file requirement before you start work (though in this case I did and I got 2 pages of specs which I didn't interpret properly).