Why design in colour and print in B&W?

[-Daniel-]

So far, my only real issue with color to B/W is when we are talking about an image used as a "Background" with Type over it. In some products the image is so dark or complex that it makes reading the type harder. In a couple cases it even looks like they type was converted from a mixed black and thus went grey as well. This makes it very hard to read the text (the very reason I buy many of the books, the content).

Daniel

Could you show some examples? It's always good to have a visual for not only the product but of what is considered unacceptable. I'm always down to pick up a new working style if it means that whatever book I'm working on is more user friendly

Sure, the last set of books I read that would be great to use as examples. A good example of how bad it can be is the Armageddon 2089 book Earth 2089. The back ground made reading some areas in that book near impossible. What is worse is the type in that same book seems like it was almost a grey rather then a black. Combined the two were a major issue in that book. Interesting enough the Soldier's Companion was not as bad. The background seemed lighter and was not as “rich” so that the type was more legible on the page but it still was not as easy to read as it could have been.

Daniel