Always Print First, and Even Then...

There are too many very heavy things happening here and in the world for my mind to process and turn into words today. (Sixteen months for Kim Potter, who killed Daunte Wright? And an invasion? And another Minneapolis police outrage just exposed?)

So instead, I just have this, from an ad that ran in the Star Tribune for a play at the Children's Theater Company:

I cut off the far right side, with the dates and things, but the point is: check out the messed up color on the right edge, which makes the name of the show unreadable. 

What were they expecting to happen when they used those two shades of orange, overlaying each other? Especially on newsprint?

Here's a screen shot of a graphic from theater group's website, showing what the color contrast may have been intended to be like:

It's hard to believe the designer was going for that strong orange in the ad's background — if anything, it looks like it was supposed to be lighter than the word "town." But either way, it didn't work on press. 

This ad is a good lesson:

1. Rule number one: Never trust your computer screen when you're doing print work. Light is not ink, or even toner. Print it out to get at least a partial reality check.
   
2. Rule number two: Even if you do print it out to check the color, if the real printing will be on newsprint, it will bear little relationship to your printouts. Low-percentage tints will disappear and high-pecentage ones will go completely dark. Getting noticeable contrast between two tints of the same color is chancy if one of them isn't pretty dark.