You are likely reading this page because our graphics team has reviewed your manuscript and identified text that may not print as you think. There are many standard color swatches that appear to be solid black but are in fact only dark gray.
On your monitor, these may not be obvious, and may only really be clear if they are directly touching an area of solid black, or in large areas, but neither of those is common in text. They will be clear in your printed book because of how a printer recreates those values.
The above image is a zoomed-in scan to show you how a printer creates these values using what is called a halftone. The 100% black ink text prints with a smooth outer edge and a solid fill. The 85% black text is made up of black dots, mixed with unprinted dots. When viewed from a normal distance this would appear as a dark grey instead of black. Notice how the edges are not necessarily smooth in this example.
We do not require that your text be 100% black, and many authors will use various halftones of text for different effects in their book. We have found that many authors use these dark swatches by accident and are upset with how they look when printed. We will warn for text in the range of 80-99% because that range is not easily identified on your monitor and we believe it could be an accident. If you have text tinted below 79% we will not warn because it should be obvious on your monitor, and we assume this was done intentionally. If you are aware of your tinted text and don't want to make any changes, that's absolutely fine. Simply choose "as is" when resubmitting your order and we will proceed with the halftones you have set!
The tools used to identify these color settings are only going to identify live text. If you have outlined text or raster text (a picture of text) that is set to a halftone instead of a solid, these will not be counted as live text and there will be no warning. So be sure to order a proof copy to make sure everything is how you expect!