BLACK TEXT THAT’S NOT BLACK

Canva designs in RGB which is for screen displays. It uses red, green and blue light that can look like the right combination on the screen for 100% black, but highly sensitive printing equipment can detect if it isn’t.

If it’s not 100% black it’s not going to look right in the finished print product.

Unless you’ve created your artwork so your blacks are "standard black" (0% cyan, 0% magenta, 0% yellow, 100% black or K) and not a "rich black" - what looks like black but is actually a combination of CMYK values (eg. 50% cyan, 50% magenta, 50% yellow, 100% black) then it can be problematic for print.

Canva only allows you to create in RGB colours then when you download your finished file Canva can convert those colours to CMYK for printing. Unfortunately, this isn’t always a successful process. Professional artwork software such as Adobe InDesign designs in CMYK so no unreliable conversion process is necessary.

How to set black text to CMYK in Canva

Your text may look black to you on your screen but if it isn’t set to #000000 (or CMYK black) in the colour picker, then for print purposes it’s actually a colour and will be printed as a colour, which may not look right in the printed product.

1. Select the text you want to be black

2. Click on the Colour Picker (an A with the current colour shown under it, along the top editing options)

3. Set it to standard black (0% cyan, 0% magenta, 0% yellow, 100% black): 

   Document Colors / click on the + symbol that’s surrounded by a multicolour circle

   Enter #000000 into the box at the bottom where the numbers are

4. Download as a PDF: 

   Go to Share / Download

   File type / Select PDF Print

   Colour Profile / CMYK (best for professional printing)

   NOTE: the CMYK option is not available in Canva’s free plan, you need a paid subscription for this feature.

5. Download

6. Check that the colours in your PDF are as you want them to be.

   If there’s a problem after downloading, it's likely due to the registration swatch that Canva uses that can cause RGB black to not be properly converted to CMYK black. If that happens, you’ll either need to accept Canva’s limitations or have your artwork created by a professional designer who uses more sophisticated software.

   You can also check the file in the Output Preview in Adobe Acrobat Pro to check the separation, ie. the percentages of C (cyan) M (magenta) Y (yellow) and K (black).

USE OUR EXPERTISE INSTEAD

If all this looks too daunting or you need to be absolutely sure your artwork will be print ready the first time you export the file, call us for a chat about how Glide Print’s experienced and affordable graphic designers can prepare it for you instead. We’re here to help.

We've been in the print industry for over two decades. We know a lot about print. Getting it right is all part of our personal service for every client.

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