Plate 01 · DifferenceRGB − RGB
Contrast that changes with the field.
The outline inverts against its orbit — graphic, direct, best when one decisive metric has to win.
Use single decisive figure
The thesis
One ink. Two papers. No reprint.
You asked for the blend that survives a page flipping between light and dark. There is a clear winner, and it is the oldest trick in the pressroom: difference. It subtracts the layer beneath it, channel by channel, so a pure-white impression lands as black on the bone sheet and stays white on the archive sheet — the same plate, no correction.
The mathematics refuse to fail you: difference outputs |top − bottom|, so matching colours cancel to black and opposites invert hard. There is no input that resolves to a muddy mid-tone. That is precisely why it holds over an unknown ground.
Everything else picks a side. Multiply and color-burn only darken — they vanish on a dark sheet. Screen and lighten only brighten — they vanish on a light one. Difference is the only common mode that adapts in both directions at once.
Difference can’t produce a low-contrast result — which is exactly why it survives a page that flips.
Operating note · RL
The set
Four inks.
Four jobs.
A blend mode only pays off when it carries content. Each plate runs a giant figure overprinting its orbital ink, with the headline doing the talking — a metric card the moment you swap the numeral for a live KPI.
Plate 02 · Screenbase + light
Light without a new colour.
Screening the lime endpoint lifts the figure brighter, while the ground keeps its stable bone contrast.
Use bright editorial lift
Plate 03 · Exclusiongrey midpoint
A softer inversion for comparison.
Less absolute than difference — reach for it when the figure needs texture, not dominance.
Use comparative stories
Plate 04 · Color burndarken + saturate
Density for the risk, not the copy.
A dark orbit adds pressure behind a pale outline. Reserve it for warnings, friction, and consequence.
Use warnings & friction
Colophon One green ground, one support ink per plate — blue, lime, violet, the same series encoding the charts use. The blend does every inversion; swap a numeral for a live KPI and the plate ships.
The proof
White ink,
then black.
Same orbital field, same difference plate — only the impression colour changes. The fastest way to see why the rule exists.
White impression#fff
Inverts clean. Legible anywhere.
Pure white is the strongest input for difference — it flips fully against both the dark ground and the bright orbit, so the figure never smears into the field.
Result full inversion
Black impression--ink
Barely moves. Muddies the field.
Black is difference’s identity — |x−0| = x — so dark type hardly inverts and sinks toward the ground.
Result never on difference
Rule Keep any difference / exclusion impression pure #fff. If a layout needs dark inverting type, switch the plate to color-burn or multiply instead.
Four rules that keep the sheet clean
R1
Isolate every study.
Wrap each field in isolation: isolate so it reacts to its own ground, not the whole page beneath it.
R2
Keep the impression white.
Pure #fff gives the cleanest, most predictable inversion under difference and exclusion in every mode.
R3
One support ink per plate.
Green grounds; blue, lime, or violet orbits — the dataviz series, never chrome. The blend supplies the rest.
R4
Reserve burn for consequence.
Darkening modes read as pressure. Spend color-burn on warnings and friction — never on body copy.