prepress which black or registration

[danc222]

Hi!
Could someone please just give some brief points on when my text should be black and when it should be registration. Is 'rich black' the same as registration, or do I have to 'mix' it myself (K = 100% and C/M 40%)?

Your help is always apreciated.
Cheers

[Kool]

Text should never be registration or rich black unless you want some angry pressmen. Registration should only be used for targets, ticks and non printing notes outside the margins. Rich black should be used for large areas of solid black only. :cool:

[danc222]

Exactly what i needed to know - thanks heaps!

[Kool]

Your welcome, and welcome to the forum :)

[jamodu]

Out of interest Kool, what happens when you have a large are a of rich black (100%K/45%C) with reveresed out text (10pt). Should I be playing with the trapping settings on the cyan?

[Kool]

I've never bothered, cyan is light enough that a tiny bit out of register won't show up. Visually the black will dominate. I never trap text ever unless it's real big, like 200 pts AND a spot color. :cool:

[jamodu]

fair enough. I've used a rich black with white-out text on business cards and the misregistered ones don't look too bad, but I wondering if there was anything I could do to reduce it. I'll probably just use 100% K next time :)

[Kool]

No you need to use rich black or it will often come out kind of dark gray. Just don't try and trap the text. It's not necessary, a few dots of 40% C M or Y won't be noticable unless you use loupe. What you are doing by using the rich black is making the ink a little thicker, a little heavier. to give you that deep dark look. The eye will just see the black because it is so dominate and will cancel out any bleed over. :cool: