stupid question: can i make a navy blue with royal blue and black ink?

[Mark @ Hurricane Printing]

i have a design calling for a navy blue...i have a royal blue...would throwing some black in in it make it a navy blue? No time to order a navy blue ink....what can i mix into the royal to get me closer to the darker navy blue?...i don't have a lot of assorted inks on hand. I'm a small operation.

[mk162]

it should work fine..not perfect, but fine.

Always always always start with a tiny amount of ink anyway, that way if it bombs you don't have a ton of waste.

[Frog]

food for thought, some formulas from the Union Mixopake sytem which may give you some insight even though you don't have these ingredients.

To make an ink that matches Union light navy (which is regular navy to everyone else) they use close to
50 parts Blue (Green shade)
30 Violet (Which is almost identical to their stock Purple)
20 Black

To make Royal they use
83 Blue (G/S)
17 Violet

So, to me it looks like a little Purple will help as well.

Like was mentioned, start small, literally toothpick or matchstick quantities to get started aren't that crazy in these endeavors

[Printficient]

Xenon has a Pantone 289 Navy for $45.50 a gallon.

[kingscreen]

Yes.  And I second the notion of adding a small amount of violet/purple and being very sparing with the Black.

[Sbrem]

Yes, either Black or White can kill a mix fast...

Steve

[Frog]

Yes, either Black or White can kill a mix fast...

Steve

And, not all blacks are created equal. Lord knows what's in there.