Secret Tips for Great Black Colored Business Cards

Business cards with black backgrounds are difficult to print. If you have ever created a black business card design file, and then tried to use your file to have business cards printed at the local print shop, you have probably experienced this first-hand.

If the black in your design file is set up in a suboptimal manner, flaws on the physical product could ensue, such as graying, blotches, or streaks. Additionally, a pure black background could become oversaturated during printing, leading to complications on specialty products like spot UV business cards or glossy business cards due to improper drying (less common on silk business cards but still possible).

To avoid these common problems with black business cards, make sure the background is set up as a "rich black."

What is Rich Black?

Rich black is a black color made by mixing other colors into the black ink. Most business card printers utilize a standard 4-color printing process known as CMYK, so we will focus on this type of printing for the purposes of this article.

CMYK stands for Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black, and changing each value’s percentage can generate any color. The "truest" black has the following values: C=0%, M=0%, Y=0%, K=100%. In other words, this mixture is 100% black with no other colors present. However, this probably would not print as expected, because at 100% black, oversaturation is likely to occur (again, particularly on glossy business cards and spot UV business cards).

Rich black is achieved by integrating other color values into the mixture. Having all four inks in a CMYK black produces a deeper black on press than could be achieved by using black ink alone.

There are different combinations for rich black. A typical mixture is C=40%, M=20%, Y=30%, K=100%. Another one is C= 60%, M=40%, Y=40%, K=100%. Since there are many possible combinations, it would be wise get a recommendation from your printer.

Tips for Creating Rich Black Business Card Files

1. Ask your printer for a rich black recommendation, and make sure this advice applies to all cardstocks (silk business cards vs. plastic business cards, for example)
2. It is best to use rich black only for your design background (if it’s black), or for objects at least 5 millimeters thick.
3. If you create your files in Photoshop, avoid using the ‘Fill’ command to select ‘Black’, as this adds 100% of all process colors to the image and could lead to oversaturation.
4. Note that the above rules apply to offset printing technology and may not apply to digital presses.

Final Thoughts

They say a pound of prevention is worth an ounce of cure, and the same goes for business card printing. Whether you’re printing black silk business cards, spot UV business cards, glossy business cards, or even plastic business cards, avoid potential headaches by taking the time to create a rich black color scheme before submitting your artwork for print.

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