Black vectors forced to gray

[JoshB]

I'm dealing with an issue were in a B&W halftone-RIP pages that have multiple color spaces can produce pretty odd results. Basically, if we have RGB black or just straight black in gray only mixed with a CMYK marking that is a rich black, the rich black seems to become the new absolute black and all the other blacks get forced down into a dark gray.

I've been messing with that RIP workflow a dozen different ways, but nothing so far has helped. Most recently, I tried to use the ColorPro management to handle it, instead "No color management". I used the generic gray profile that came with the RIP as an output profile. This keeps all my blacks solid, but produces output with a light gray over the entire background. This is the case even though I've said not to emulate the paper color and it happens whether or not I use black point compensation? Any hints from someone more experienced?

Thanks.

[JoshB]

If anyone else has this issue, I found improvements by using "Late color management".