Re: DTP Question: 50% Gray

[Michael Richards <michaelr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Just a thought:

In general 50% grey is too dark a tint for laser printer and especially for
material for web offset.

There are two reasons for this:

1) Laser printers are essentially non-linear devices when it comes to generating
tints. Since PostScript 2, it has been possible to callibrate these devices, but
on one ever bothers. The upshot, in my limited experience, is you tend to get
rather darker tints than that you requested via the authoring software.

2) In real printing (e.g. web offset) you get an effect called "dot gain" which
means that the blobs of ink (that make up the "screen" pattern used to get the
tint) spread. The result is that stuff that is around 50% or more tends to fill
in and become very black.

Experience shows that even 30% is still rather dark. You would be surprised how
black 3% looks on paper.

Aesthetically, though, there is little need to match the tints of an ink
throughout the document. They are, after all, just "greys" of the same colour
and therefore don't produce the harsh dissonances that you can get between real
spot colours (reflex blue and warm red for example).

Just my $0.02 of our debased Aussie currency. 

Colin Green wrote:
> 
> Framers,
> 
> The following is an aesthetic design question. (Frame 5.5 Win95)
> 
> I have used a 50% gray as part of a template aesthetic (intended for
> print). Certain text elements are contrasted in gray against the standard
> black; elements such as figure titles, table headings, appear in gray,
> while the body text is black. Works fine.
> 
> However, I've also applied the 50% gray to the chapter numbers, which
> appear in a 45pt Officina at the beginning of each chapter (it establishes
> the visual expectation for the gray). Naturally, because of the size of
> the chapter number gyph, the number "appears" to be considerably darker
> than the smaller characters, such as the figure titles. They are, however,
> both 50% gray.
> 
> In your wizened experience, would it be fruitful for me to adjust the
> gray tint of the chapter num to visually match the other elements?
> (That is, reduce the darkness to appear more similar to the other
> elements on the page.) Or am I likely to suffer later on, in print, for
> such inconsistencies? (That is, it'll never look quite right; or I'm
> gonna waste days in the print shop tweaking this gray. And so on.)
> 
> Any feedback is welcome.
> 
> Colin
> 
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-- 
        Michael Richards
        Email:  michaelr@ind.tansu.com.au
        Tel: +61 2 9206 3524
        Locked Bag 6581 Sydney 1100
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        Future E-Developments,
        Telstra Corporation, Australia

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