CMYK Black vs. 100% K
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- underlow0
I used to work at a small print shop, and I know how confusing the color process can be unless you've dealt with it a lot.
So there's two different printing processes that most shops use: offset and digital. Digital prints use CMYK process color and lay all those inks down in the single pass, much like your printer at home. This recudes any sort of registration problems where colors might look "fuzzy." Offset printing is done mechanically, laying the ink down in (up to) four passes. If the pressman is feeling a little bit drunk that day, things might not line up and you'll get bad prints.
For cost effectiveness, it really depends on how much you're printing. Digital printers have a "per click" charge that stays constant and doesn't require setting up plates for four different inks, so it can be cheaper for shorter (<5000) print runs. If you're going more than that, shoot for offset, where the cost-per-thousand diminishes the more you have printed.
Now for blacks, you want to print rich black (offset or digital) for any blacks in a photographic image. Standard black is FINE for text and solid black parts. If you're printing, say, a letterhead, you might find it more cost-effective to print offset with black and a couple of other spot Pantone colors in larger quantities.
Of course, your results may vary. :)