Choosing a yellow that survives the printer

This is how we choose a yellow for a brand, how we test it, and what we write in the brand guide so it stays the same yellow on a business card, a poster and a phone.

Why yellows shift

Yellow is the lightest ink on the press. It has very little contrast with white paper, so small changes show. A dark blue can move a little and nobody notices. A yellow that moves the same amount looks like a different color.

Paper does most of the damage

Paper is never neutral. Bright white stocks often have a cool, blue cast, which pushes yellow toward lemon and green. Cream stocks push it warm, toward egg yolk. Recycled stocks can add a gray cast that dulls it.

Coated and uncoated

On coated paper the ink sits on the surface, so yellow stays clean and bright. On uncoated paper the ink sinks into the fibers. The dots spread, the color gets darker and flatter, and it dries back duller than it looked wet on the press.

Process or spot

Process yellow is one of the four standard inks in every four-color job. It is made to a shared standard, so it behaves much the same at most printers. A spot yellow is mixed for your job. It can be brighter, but it adds a plate and a cost, and each mix can vary a little from batch to batch.

Screens and print

A screen makes color with light, so screen yellow is brighter than any ink. Screens also differ from each other. We never match print to a screen. We match the screen to the printed swatch, as near as a screen can get.

How we test a yellow

We start with a drawdown. The printer or ink supplier spreads a thin, even film of the actual ink on the actual paper with a blade. It costs little or nothing, and it shows the ink as it will really print, which no screen or office printer can.

Sky blue steps that lead nowhere, on a pale grey floor

A glass cube that casts a pale blue patch of light on concrete

Two tests for one color: a matte surface and clear glass. The ground changes a color more than the ink does.

Then we print the same yellow on four papers, on the same press, in the same run. We view the sheets in a daylight booth, by a window and under warm shop lights. A yellow that holds in one light can turn in another.

The same yellow ink printed on four papers, from bright coated white to warm uncoated cream

One yellow, four papers. The ink is the same in every square. Only the paper changes.

1. Coated gloss 150 gsm, bright white: the cleanest and coolest.

2. Coated silk 150 gsm, white: a little softer, still bright.

3. Uncoated 120 gsm, bright white: darker, flatter, slightly green.

4. Uncoated 140 gsm, cream: warm, close to egg yolk.

We pick the yellow that looks right on the papers the brand will use most, and accept a small shift on the rest. Trying to make one yellow look identical on every stock usually makes it look wrong on all of them.

Our house yellow

Our own yellow is 100 percent process yellow and nothing else. No touch of magenta for warmth, no tint of cyan. With one ink, there is no balance between inks to drift, and any printer can hit it on the first sheet. On screen we use #FFE600, matched by eye to the coated swatch.

We tested a warmer spot yellow first. It was beautiful on coated stock and muddy on our uncoated letterhead. Plain process yellow lost less on both papers, so it won. It also costs nothing extra on a four-color job, which matters for a small studio that prints often. We still check it at the press, every run.

What goes in the brand guide

A brand guide that gives one number for yellow is not finished. We give each client a short color page with a value for every place the color will live:

• Print, coated: the process mix, for example C0 M0 Y100 K0.

• Print, uncoated: its own mix, set after the drawdown.

• Spot: an ink reference and the printer’s mixing note, for signs and packaging.

• Screen: hex and RGB values, for web, apps and slides.

• Text: yellow is a background for black type, never type on white.

That last line is about accessibility. Yellow type on white fails contrast checks at every size, so we never let yellow carry words on its own.

We also hand over printed swatches on the client’s main papers. When a sign maker or a new printer asks for the yellow, the client sends the swatch, not a file. People match what they can hold far better than a number in an email.