Rich black vs pure black
Black is the one colour designers most often get wrong for print. Plain 100% K looks flat and slightly grey across a large area. Piling on all four inks to fix it (400% rich black) won't dry and smears. The right answer is a measured rich black recipe — and knowing when to use plain K instead.
Why 100% K looks grey
A single black ink isn't perfectly opaque. Spread over a large solid, it lets a little paper show through and reads as dark charcoal rather than deep black — especially next to a photo with shadow detail built from four inks. For small text it's perfect; for a full-bleed black background it can look washed out.
Rich black: black plus support inks
Rich black adds cyan, magenta and/or yellow under the black to deepen it. The goal is depth without breaking your ink limit. A few field-tested recipes:
A reliable default
60/40/40/100 (240% TAC) gives a deep, neutral black that prints and dries on most coated stocks. Drop the support inks for uncoated or absorbent papers, where the limit is lower.
| Recipe | TAC | Use |
|---|---|---|
| 0 / 0 / 0 / 100 | 100% | Body text, fine lines, barcodes |
| 60 / 40 / 40 / 100 | 240% | Neutral rich black for large solids |
| 40 / 30 / 30 / 100 | 200% | Safe rich black, absorbent stock |
| 50 / 40 / 40 / 100 (warm) | 230% | Slightly warm deep black |
| 100 / 100 / 100 / 100 | 400% | Never — won't dry, will set off |
When to use plain 100% K
Rich black is for large areas, not everything. Use plain 100% K for:
- Small text and fine lines — rich black needs all inks in perfect register; if they shift even slightly, edges show colour fringing and text looks fuzzy.
- Barcodes — must be crisp and single-ink to scan reliably.
- Anything reversed/knocked out at small sizes — multi-ink registration is unforgiving at small scale.
The rule: solid backgrounds get rich black; type and detail get pure K.
The two failure modes
Get rich black wrong in either direction and it shows. Too little ink (plain K on a big solid) looks grey. Too much ink (rich black pushed past the paper's limit) causes set-off, slow drying and filled-in shadows — the same problems covered in our Total Area Coverage guide.
Before sending, check the heaviest blacks against your printer's TAC limit. The Ink Coverage / TAC checker flags any area over the limit so a too-rich black never reaches the press. And remember big solid blacks still print as halftone builds under the K — our halftone explainer shows why even 'solid' areas are screened.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best rich black recipe?
For most coated stock, 60/40/40/100 (240% TAC) gives a deep neutral black that dries cleanly. Use lower support inks (e.g. 40/30/30/100) on uncoated or absorbent paper.
Should I use rich black for text?
No. Use plain 100% K for body text and fine lines. Rich black requires all inks to register perfectly; any small shift causes colour fringing that makes small text look fuzzy.
Why does my black background look grey?
It's probably 100% K alone, which isn't fully opaque over large areas. Switch large solid blacks to a rich black recipe to deepen them.
Is 100% K registration black?
Don't confuse them. 100% K is single-ink black for text. 'Registration black' is 100% of all plates (400%) used only for crop and registration marks — never for artwork, because it floods ink.
The black that actually looks black
Plain K on a big solid is the most common 'why does my black look grey' culprit we see. A measured rich black fixes it — just keep it under the ink limit. Reviewed June 14, 2026.