Difficulty of printing black on your book cover

Printed covers ready to be loaded

 For a book to be right, the printer has to be perfect. And there are many things that can go wrong, because there are several stages and people involved in it.

Knowledge of printing limitations helps on planning your book from the beginning. The biggest problem that Decoding Communication faced that it was in black. We came to know that black and blue are the most difficult colors to deal with, and the extra time this color took for drying was some of the more benign ones.

First test copy on the forming machine

Test of the initial copies before final run

As every woman knows (and no man does), there are hundreds of shades of black and only the most experienced printers can get 'your' black correctly. One more problem with black is even the smallest mistake in printing will show up like it was highlighted. If you have lamination on the cover (which if it happens to be black and white, like in the case of Decoding Communication), any extra pressure leaves a white mark, making the mistake very evident.



In the case of this book, the white had to look like chalk on blackboard, so it had to be having a light feel. One thing very difficult to imagine is how 'light' the white will feel after a matt lamination. From my experience with cover laminations, I would suggest that you leave the white 10% sharper than what you want the end result to be.

While designers suggest some standard colors that compliment black, the one I found to work best was the unadulterated yellow and black. If the writing is in this 'specific' yellow, it will not take away from the white (the face in this cover for instance). But if you get the yellow wrong, this color can draw all the attention.

Finally, we have what we want, and as I have been ranting ever since I saw it, the baby does look dark and handsome.