Modern offset printing with CMYK is capable of presenting a kaleidoscope of vivid colors for exciting and memorable business cards. When it comes to black, care must be taken in the make-up of your blacks so you get satisfactory results.

Most black type for titles and small text is made up of 70s to 80s values of CMYK. That’s common and perfectly acceptable. Likewise, 100K black is useful for text printing and small blocks.

The difficulty begins when one of these formals is used to fill in the background of a design. 100% black in a large block in not as black as you may like and it can take on brownish overtones. The mixed color black described above can produce over-saturation. This can cause blotchy spot and other unexpected results in the finished product. Try to stay below a combined CMYK value of 275 in any large block. This will avoid over-saturation problems.

Which black then is best? There is much difference of opinion among designers and printers. It seems to come down to a subjective evaluation. Some like 60/40/40/100. Others prefer 30/30/30/100 or 35/45/35/100. For our work at Nexcards, we like 40/30/20/100. All of these would be in the so-called “rich black” preferred by printers who want dark black without over-saturating the paper (and wasting ink). If in doubt, call the printer and ask what large scale black they prefer.

Printers are familiar with the problem with some blacks and should kick out any of those problem cards. You can insure against an undesirable result by ordering from a reputable printing firm with a full customer service staff.

While we are speaking of colors, it’s best to begin your design in CMYK which is the offset printing industry standard. We must save all work to CMYK before we send the work along. You can be more sure of your colors when you design you business cards or other printing project in CMYK.