Ask Lena: Black background & Reflex Blue

Hi Lena,

I need this logo with the black background removed. I’m trying to place it in a document with a black background but I can still see the outline of the black box. Is there a quick fix?

Secondly, do you know what it means when a newspaper says that a spot color is reflex blue. They didn’t give me a pms color.

First, your image is 100% black. What color is your background? If it was generated in Photoshop, etc, it might be a “best black” (meaning a mix of colors to create a rich black.) If they are different mixes, then they will show mixed.

Also, check the way InDesign views black in the preferences (Preferences – Appearance of Black) to see if changing that will help.

Finally, it might just look funny on screen. I re-saved your image as a tif. You shouldn’t place PSD files or layered tifs into layout programs. I keep two files. One original with the layers and one flattened one for document usage.

Reflex blue is a Pantone color. It is one of the few named ones that doesn’t use a number. If you scroll to the bottom of the chart here, you can see some of them.