Internet Colors - Set of 1035

Rich Black Color 792 - #004040

Rich black, in printing, is an ink mixture of solid black over one or more of the other CMYK colors, resulting in a darker tone than black ink alone generates in a printing process.

A typical rich black mixture might be 100% black, 50% of each of the other three inks. Other percentages are used to achieve specific results, for example 100% black with 70% cyan, 35% magenta, and 40% yellow is used to achieve "cool" black. "Warm Black" is 35%C 60%M 60%Y and 100%K. The colored ink under the black ink makes a "richer" result: the additional inks absorb more light, resulting in a closer approximation of true black. While in theory an even richer black can be made by using 100% of each of the four inks, in practice the amount of non-black ink added is limited by the wetness that the paper and printing process can handle. (A safe and practical rule of thumb is that ink coverage should not exceed 240% on normal papers.