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Visit Simply the Best in Personal and Corporate Gifts Need a Quick Ship Gift? Visit our Quick Ship Gift Ideas section now There's Black and There's Black In the world of commercial printing, there are a number of ways to achieve the color Black: 1. Black: This is a Pantone spot color color ink that comes straight from the ink manufacturer; 2. Process Black: This is the black ink we call "K" in 4-color, or process printing (CMYK=Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black); 3. Rich Black: A variation sometimes used in process printing which is composed of: 60 percent Cyan no (0) Magenta, no (0) Yellow and 100 percent Black ink Two pieces of film are required for the press run; and 4. Full Black: A variation sometimes used in process printing to create a deep, dense black effect and is composed of 60 percent Cyan, 40 percent Magenta, 20 percent Yellow and 100 percent Black; four pieces of film are required for the press run. The black you see on your computer monitor is a fifth way of defining the color. Our desktop monitors use a color scheme composed of only three colors -- Red, Green and Blue. So, how is the black we see on our screens achieved? In this system, black is achieved by the absence of color -- RGB black is composed of zero Red, zero Green and zero Blue. For desktop printing in your office, the default color black in your software programs serves their purposes well. Your monitor lets you view an RGB black and your printer capabilities determine the appropriate value needed to create black on your page. (Color inkjets emulate 2, 3 or 4 above, depending on their capabilities. Black and white printers, whether laser or inkjet, are like using 1 above.) Now you know.

Please Avoid Trying To "Help" Your Commercial Printer If you are one of those folks who think "if a little is good, more has got to be better," don't ass-u-me (the hyphens are there on purpose) that you are helping by creating a black composed of 100 percent Cyan, 100 percent Magenta and 100 percent Yellow in addition to the 100 percent Black; printing presses cannot deal with this much ink coverage and your print job will be a mess. Use the standard Black or discuss your desired effect with your printer's representative before you send the file. He or she may suggest one of the first four black definitions above or may suggest adding a varnish to your job. For those of you who ignore this warning, you may be the reason why most commercial printers have created pre-press departments and stringent proofing requirements. Don't expect them to bend over backwards more than once on this one. Toll-free Order Hotline: (800) 971-7550 || Direct: (580) 439-6250 E-mail: sales@acumenps.com