In case you are using a really high grade paper in a good printshop, you could up that TIC (Total Ink Coverage) to around 350%. Provided fastdrying (UV), highintensity inks are used (Toyo — Japanese inks to be brighter), you might achieve something close to what you want.
Do some tests with different rich blacks and your effects. Flatten and sample the darker areas with the pipet in the Proofsimulation of PhotoShop. Or make PDF’s and check in Acrobat for TIC-limits.

Another suggestion: use a glossy laminate or varnish to finish it off.

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Bert Vanderveen BNO

thanks bert for the information - that really will help me make the black more of a ’richer’ black at the print process end, but after playing with it some more ive got a feeling my issue might now be a photoshop technical issue.

It seems to be the various layers blend modes (which are dependent on the background colour having the black a solid black, so the CMYK settings are right up allowing the layers to react the way they do - all saturated). Im just after a solid black background but with the sae level of saturation on the colours... something im not sure now might be possible :(

Anyway, Ive provided two cropped images from the file im working on which hopefully demonstrate my predicament. The first image being the original with solid black, while the second is the black background set to C10 M0 Y0 K100 - big difference in my opinion.

One - http://imgplace.com/image/view/a66ac6354132fa92437cfc47302e5ff1

Two - http://imgplace.com/image/view/0cbe5f78c279f274d248e6e081dfc067

thanks again bert.

You def. don’t want that grayish one… ; )

If I recall correctly blend modes work different in CMYK. Couldn’t you do it in RGB — using a basic deep black converted to RGB from say 40C 40M 40Y 100K?

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Bert Vanderveen BNO

If I was in your situation, I’d attempt to apply all the layer blending modes, flatten the whole file and adjust the saturation to bring your less dense black up to scratch, this may however, still be problematic, as that black will still have values from all 4 colours. Depending on your print spec, you could run the whole job with your 100% K/10% C then hit the black again with a % of the K. This, naturally, depends on the press your job is being output on.

I’ve just sent a job to print, a flooded black A1 poster, thats going through twice, to get the denseness right, 5 days drying imo, and the it needs to be folded!! :S

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Rez

Hmm, are you referring to how it looks on-screen? If so, that’s no judge really of what you’ll get out of the printer, litho or digital. I think what you’re seeing just happens to be Photoshop’s on-screen reaction to your CMYK values and these won’t be reproduced when you print.

I also think you need to Google “rich black” too. Full 100% on all four colours is only ever used for registration and other marks. You’d never print that.

Essentially though your screen isn’t adequate to accurately proof your composition as its gamut will be different to that of the CMYK process. Downloading the colour profile of the output device might help, but the only way to judge it would be to have a chromalin or digital proof made.

Yeah re: the blends, when i convert the file to RGB it works fine. But as you know you cant provide RGB files for 4-plate cos the printer/tech will simply convert the image back to CMYK pre-plate stage - it’s then a gamb