Hi,

I recently created a business card that had a black background. I created a PDF and sent it to the printer. Upon receiving it I found that the background was not "jet black" but some lesser black. Can someone tell me how I implement Rich Black in inkscape?

Thanks,
Wayne

Hi Wayne,
I probably don't have the correct answer, but I can make some comments which may lead you to the answer. First, in the SVG, make sure it's #000000. As far as I know, it should convert to PDF and retain that same color. Although I'm not absolutely positive about that.

One possibility for the source of the problem could be the printer or printing process. Sometimes printers require a CMYK type of color. Currently in Inkscape, that can only be done with the extension in this topic: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=5943. (Although for black, I wonder if CMYK would have any appreciable affect/effect???)

And definitely ask the printer about the color problem. If you've confirmed in your SVG file that the color is #000000, and excluded any potential need for CMYK color, then the printer or his process must be the source of the problem. Be sure and ask for his/her suggestions, as well as for any other requirements. You could even open the existing PDF and use Inkscape's Dropper tool to check the color.

Also, it seems to me that the type of card stock could seem to affect the appearance of the color. I've seen cards with a glossy surface, which would make more of a jet black, than a typical card stock, where black might have more of a matte looking finish, and appear grayish. The printer might be able to explain why, but this is just an observation on my part.

Hopefully others will have more definitive suggestions

Thanks for the note Brynn,

I've had this problem before in Scribus and was able to set my colors to attain this "rich black"... I found this in wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_black, where it states

A typical rich black mixture might be 100% black, 50% of each of the other three inks.

but I cannot maintain my K value (black) at 100% while increasing the other colors....

Thanks

Interesting!!
Since you mentioned the K, I'm assuming you're using the CMYK tab of the Fill and Stroke dialog? But that's not the same as the CMYK print model. The difference between the 2 has been explained to me, but I don't understand it. All I can say is that one is for printing and the other is just for coloring the image. But if that's what you're after, you'll need to use the extension that I mentioned.

Or are you saying that you're already using the extension, but you can't set the K value? I have no trouble with the Fill and Stroke dialog, but I don't even have the extension.

Have you tried putting your SVG in scribus and exporting from there? I believe this will be the only way to assign undercolor to your black. (Besides using Adobe distiller or Illustrator).

Rich black is a printing process color achieved by overprinting with a dark grey or dark blue or some other process depending on the printer's technology. In PDF this is as simple as indicating one (or more) of the colors used in the pallette as being rich black. And this color or colors (whatever you choose them to appear like on screen) are then printed as rich black by the printer, whichever technology they use to do it. I'm not sure if there's a way to mark something as rich black in inkscape before exporting to PDF.
Depending on program used (such as inDesign for example) you can even achieve rich black on a non-commercial grade printer, as the program can get the printer to overprint. With non-professional software though it's hard to achieve this black in print. A simple #000000 one pass print will never look a rich black.

Okay... I'm pretty clear on what rich black is... a combination of colors that acheive a darker black. The big question is what does Inkscape not allow me to have a combination of colors like

C 50%
M 40%
Y 40%
K 100%

The program will now allow me to make such a combination.

Thanks,
Wayne

If K is 100% then (logically) CMY don't matter and don't apply. At the opposite end having K set to zero, CMY also don't matter.
Overprint / rich black is not achieved through the standard color model selections.
Maybe i'm not reading your question right.

Okay... I'm pretty clear on what rich black is... a combination of colors that acheive a darker black. The big question is what does Inkscape not allow me to have a combination of colors like

C 50%
M 40%
Y 40%
K 100%

The program will now allow me to make such a combination

As I said way up in the beginning, Inkscape does NOT offer the CMYK print model. It can only happen through the extension that I've already mentioned. The CMYK in the Fill and Stroke dialog is just a way to color an image. It is NOT the print model.