search.noResults

search.searching

note.createNoteMessage

search.noResults

search.searching

orderForm.title

orderForm.productCode
orderForm.description
orderForm.quantity
orderForm.itemPrice
orderForm.price
orderForm.totalPrice
orderForm.deliveryDetails.billingAddress
orderForm.deliveryDetails.deliveryAddress
orderForm.noItems
CONTACT PREPRESS: 01685 388 888


WHAT IS IT? // WHAT ARE THE ISSUES IT CAUSES? HOW CAN YOU CHECK FOR IT? // HOW CAN YOU CONTROL?


HERE IS OUR GUIDE TO EXCESSIVE TOTAL AREA COVERAGE


A common problem printers experience is when a file has been supplied with too much ink in any particular area (excessive T.A.C). In theory, you can create a ‘black’ by applying 100% of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black and there is a myth that this will produce the ‘rich black’ that a lot of people desire. In practice this does not work, for reasons listed as follows:


n


The eye can tell little difference between a 400% (black) and the guidelines we suggest below:


n


Ink pigments are by nature imperfect and consequently, the resulting colours may not appear on the printed sheet as they do on your screen


n


Printing too much ink on a page will cause oversaturation and can lead to ink build up which results in the sheet taking much longer to dry (if at all).


n The job is susceptible to marking during the production process. n Paper is more likely to stretch, curl or tear


n


Your design can lose definition in areas such as shadows and mid-tones.


n


It adds unnecessary costs, time and quality-concerns to a printing job.


SO WHAT ARE THE GUIDELINES?


Any vector-based objects (such as created boxes in InDesign, Illustrator, Quark etc) should have the maximum CMYK values as follows:


Cyan = 50% Magenta = 50% Yellow = 50% Black = 100%


These values produce a black ‘rich’ enough for your print. You can alter these slightly if you wanted to, as long as you do not exceed the total %. Some people prefer a ‘colder’ looking black so will leave the Cyan underpin but drop both the Magenta and Yellow out.


You can apply these values to large text to produce a richer-looking black but NOT to any body text. Always leave your body text to 100% black only.


NEVER use the Registration colour from your pallet for anything. WHAT ABOUT IMAGES?


For coated work we use the Fogra39L profile as a working CMYK colour space and the maximum TAC should be 330% for any images. We realise that images are far more difficult to control as often you have to handle whatever is supplied to you but there are various ways of manipulating images.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4