Colors are the heart and soul of this beautiful world. Our universe would be pretty tasteless without all the heartwarming colors. These colors have the power to impact a human being’s emotions.
Designers use colors to attract people, influence them and even convince them to buy a product.
Designers use combinations of colors to evoke feelings in people; for example, the combination of red and yellow makes people hungry, red-colored clothes make people seem more attractive, purple is the color of nobility, sky blue makes people calm, etc.
Therefore, the power of colors cannot be denied, and mastering the skill of color manipulation can come in handy for graphic designers.
Black Color
Black color symbolizes power, significance, and mystery. Designers know its power and strategic importance and use it to target the audience so that it evokes desired emotions in them.
Despite a wide variety of colors, many companies and organizations design their logo in black or a combination of colors in which black is foregrounded.
Black reflects a mix of messages like power, confidence, authority, etc. It can cause a flow of emotions in the audience, making the brand seem more genuine and sophisticated.
Black Comes In Different Shades, Like:
- Midnight blue
- Dim gray
- Ebony
- Taupe
- Davy’s gray
- Charcoal
But these colors come out pretty different in the printing process than in online versions. Likewise, the good old dark black that we see on our screens often changes to grayish or muddy when printed.
This is due to the printers’ uneven mixture of the CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key) toners.
In this post, we will be talking about the Rich Black Color. Instead of the dull black color, it is often used in graphic design and printing.
What is Rich Black Color?
When huge areas feature black spots in printing, designers prefer to use the rich black color instead of the plain black color.
The ink of plain black in printing comes off as grayish or muddy, which is not what designers want.
Rich black is exactly what it sounds like. We see the rich deep black tone all around us, contrary to the plain black, which is not what it looks like.
People who aren’t designers or printers don’t know the difference between the two and can easily confuse plain black with rich black.
How is Plain Black Different from Rich Black?
There are toners in printers with CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key). With the combinations of these four colors, printers produce all the desired colors by combining these four colors.
As I mentioned before, every color in the printer is produced by a mixture of different percentages of the CMYK toners. Plain black is produced by the ‘key’ toner set to 100% in the printer.
Meanwhile, rich black combines sub-tones of all four CMYK colors. This layering of the different sub-tones is why rich black’s richness and depth.
Why Choose Rich Black Color Over Standard Black?
The quality of the color variation is different in printing. Noticing the difference on a computer screen can be tricky. When printed, rich black comes off pretty neat and dark, whereas the standard black is flat and muddy.
But often, standard black is way more helpful than rich black. For example, plain black is much more legible than rich black in small fonts. The layering of different tones can affect the crispness of the printout.
Rich black uses different layering, which can be pretty costly. But standard black uses only the ‘Key’ toner, which is cheaper than its alternative.
Where to Use the Rich Black Color?
When printing in layers of different colors, rich black is used. Plain black is sometimes translucent in layered printing, which designers do not expect. It is also used in large fonts to produce a deeper color.
Where is Plain Black used?
When we need to print in black and white, plain black is just right to express the colors when there aren’t a lot of colors. Printing the documents is done in plain black because rich black produces smudgy results.
How to Produce Rich Black Color
There is no hard and fast rule for making the rich black color, and the process varies depending upon the tool we are using.
Although a more popular opinion on getting the rich black color is 40% Cyan, 40% Magenta, 40% Yellow, and 100% Key, or, to produce a more neutral rich black color, the combination of 60% Cyan, 40% Magenta, 40% Yellow and, of course, 100% Key is used.
Produce Rich Black with Different Software
Graphic designers use various tools to make their designs, and each software has its own way of achieving rich black.
Rich Black in Photoshop
In Photoshop, the default preference is ‘Display All Blacks as Rich Black,’ confusing the designing process because rich black and plain black look the same on the screen.
But if you change the document setting from RGB to CMYK, you will see the following result.
‘Text’ is Rich Black in color, whereas the background is plain black.
To get the Rich Black in Adobe Photoshop, set the CMYK to 60%, 40%, 40%, and 100% in that order.
Rich Black in Adobe Illustrator
Setting rich black in Adobe Illustrator is similar to that of Adobe Photoshop.
If we want to see rich black, we need to change the preferences to ‘Display All Blacks as Rich Black.’
Then we set CMYK to 60%, 40%, 40%, and 100%.
Rich Black in InDesign
In InDesign, go to the ‘Windows’ option in the top navigation bar, then click on ‘Colour.’ Go to ‘Swatches’ at the bottom of the list. A table like the following will come up.
Click on the red square button on the top right of the table.
The following bar will pop.
Click on ‘New Colour Swatch,’ and a table with CMYK options will appear.
Adjust the CMYK colors to 60%, 40%, 40%, and
100%.
Then press OK, and you will get the beautiful dark rich black color.
Rich Black in Corel Draw
In Corel Draw, press ‘Shift’ and ‘F11’ to open Uniform Fill to achieve Rich Black Color.
Then set CMYK to 60%, 40%, 40%, and 100%.
You are all set to use a rich black color.
Final Words
It’s essential to check if all your blacks match your design, as the different shades of black will be very noticeable and can ruin your design.
The rich black will appear darker, and the plain black will look smudgy and grayish, which will cause the design to be mismatched.
Using the right kind of black enhances the design and adds value. The color adds gravity to the design and attracts the targeted audience.
You can also use the rich black color in your designs and work towards a successful graphic design career.
