When I started my design work journey in 2015, for a few years, I was always annoyed about why the black in illustrator looked different from one file to another.

And the light brownish black would generally make me crazy. It would not fix even whatever I tried, but sometimes it would turn pitch black.

Man, I was not sure why it would happen.

This could happen in between files from illustrator to photoshop or in between illustrator files.

Then over time, I learned about the different color profiles and how these colors work interchangeably. I will explain all this to you in this blog post. Stay with me.

Why is CMYK Color not Pitch BLACK?
So, if you are working with CMYK colors in an RGB Space, the blacks will always look brownish, as CMYK colors are a little dull compared to RGB Colors.

Why is RGB Black more BLACK than CMYK Black?
An RGB black is produced after the Red, Green, and Blue LEDs or light sources are turned off on a digital screen. It’s more like the absence of color. So they tend to look entirely black.

On the other hand, CMYK Black is produced by using only black color ink. The ink job is to absorb some and reflect other lights to create a color.

The black ink is supposed to absorb all light, but in reality, there is no object with 100% light absorbing characteristics to create absolute black, so some light will always reflect.

RGB color space will always show CMYK black a little dull brownish to show this characteristic.

How to Fix a CMYK Black to Pitch Black?
There are two ways you can fix this problem.

1. Change the Color Mode
The proper solution to this problem is to change the color space from RGB to CMYK by going to Open FileDocument Color ModeCMYK Color.

This will solve the color problem, and you will see a pitch-black color for your CMYK Color.

However, you will have to adjust the CMYK value to CMY being ZERO and K 100.

2. Change Color Code to Rich Black
In CMYK Color space and printing, a term is known as Rich Black. It is achieved by keep the CMYK value as C= 60, M= 60, Y= 60, K= 100.

Rich black CMYK color will look pitch black in an RGB Color Space and CMYK Color space.

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