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Every page's C, M, Y and K,in one table.

A booklet's cost lives in a handful of its spreads. InkQuote lists each one of them with its size and its cyan, magenta, yellow, black and total readings, so the heavy sheets are visible before the run gets priced or scheduled.

Open the PDF and read one row per page: size, C %, M %, Y %, K % and Total %, with the area-weighted document total pinned beneath.

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If this sounds like your week

One average hides the pages that cost money.

A 32-page catalogue might average modest coverage overall while four of its spreads are deep product photography on dark backgrounds. If all you have is one number for the whole document, those four spreads disappear into it. The operator discovers them on the day of the run, when the drawer of toner empties sooner than planned or the slot overruns.

Where tooling usually breaks

Mixed page sizes make a simple average wrong.

Booklets often combine sizes: a letter body with a tabloid fold-out, or an A4 report with an A3 drawing. Averaging percentages row by row treats the fold-out as if it held as much ink as a body page, though it spans twice the paper. Counting only colour pages misses how dark each one is, and eyeballing proofs on a monitor flatters dark artwork.

Where InkQuote lands

One row for each page, and a total weighted by area.

InkQuote fills its table as it measures: Page, Size in points, C %, M %, Y %, K %, Total % and Notes, to one decimal place. Selecting a row shows that page's preview and its notes in full. The All row underneath weights each page by its visible area, and after a cancelled run it says exactly which pages the total covers.

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What you get

Feature highlights

Per-page CMYK estimates

cyan, magenta, yellow, black and total coverage for every page of a PDF, with its size in points, so the heavy pages stand out before anything prints.

Native CMYK values

DeviceCMYK is measured as the file states it, so solid black text stays black ink only; grayscale counts as black, and RGB uses the PDF specification’s formula.

An area-weighted total

the All row weights every page by its area, so a document with mixed page sizes reads correctly and the total matches the paper.

Spot colours by name

named spot inks are converted through the file’s own tint transforms into the process figures and listed for each page and for the whole document.

Price per copy times copies

the Quote page turns a price per copy and a copy count into an estimate, in your Windows currency symbol, with the coverage it rests on beside it.

A one-page quote sheet, original untouched

export the page table, document total, spot colours, notes and quote as a new PDF, while the source PDF is opened read-only and nothing uploads.

Especially when

  • Estimate how much cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink or toner a PDF will use, page by page, before quoting the job
  • Measure the CMYK values a print file actually holds instead of a browser calculator’s RGB round trip
  • Turn coverage into a price per copy times copies and send the customer a one-page quote sheet
  • Keep customer artwork on the PC, with no upload, no account, and the original PDF untouched

Who benefits

Real-world scenarios

A catalogue with a few heavy spreads

A retailer's 32-page catalogue arrives for a 500-copy run. The overall look is light, but the shop suspects that a few product spreads on black backgrounds will drive the toner cost.

The InkQuote table shows those spreads with K and total figures far above the body pages. The estimator prices from the All row, which already includes them, and notes the heavy page numbers on the job ticket for the operator.

A report with A3 fold-outs

An engineering report mixes A4 text pages with two A3 fold-out drawings, and the quote has to reflect the larger sheets as well as how much ink each one carries.

The Size column shows the A3 pages in points, and the All row weights each page by area, so the fold-outs count for their full sheet. The exported quote sheet lists both sizes in its page table.

A newsletter with a brand spot colour

A company newsletter uses a named brand spot colour on every page, and the shop prints it on a digital press in CMYK, so the spot ink has to be counted in the process inks.

InkQuote converts the spot colour through the file's own tint transform into C, M, Y and K, so it counts in each page's figures, and lists the spot name for each page and for the whole document.

Deep dive

Reading the per-page table in InkQuote

What each column holds. Page is the page number. Size is the page's visible area in points, for example 612 × 792 pt for US Letter or 792 × 1224 pt for tabloid. C %, M %, Y % and K % are the estimated amount of each ink spread over the whole page, and Total % is their sum, which can run well past 100 on a heavy page. Notes holds short tags, spelled out in full when you select the row.

How a percentage is formed. Each page is painted into four coverage planes at about 100 dots per inch, using the colour values in the file, and each plane is averaged over the page. A full page of 40 percent magenta reads M 40.0; a solid black rectangle covering a quarter of the page reads K 25.0. This is the ink-amount reading that matters for cost, not a count of marked pixels.

The All row. Below the table, All gives the document figure for each channel and for the total, weighted by each page's area. Beside it, the caption reads All pages, area-weighted. If you cancel a long run, it reads Pages 1-81 of 500, area-weighted, or whatever range was finished, so the total always says what it covers.

The selected page. Select any row and the side pane shows a preview of the page, its size, its notes in full, and any spot colours it uses. Screen readers announce each row in full, for example Page 2, cyan 0.0 percent, magenta 0.0 percent, and so on.

Spot colours. A named spot ink is converted through the file's own tint transform into process values, so it counts toward the C, M, Y and K figures, and its name is listed for the page and in the document notes. Separations named Cyan, Magenta, Yellow or Black go straight to that channel.

Progress on long files. InkQuote measures one page at a time and shows Page 12 of 200 as it goes, filling the table row by row. Cancel stops the run and keeps every page finished so far.

From table to quote. The same figures feed the Quote page and the quote sheet, where the page table, the All row, the spot colours and the notes are printed on one page with the quote, so the numbers the customer sees are the numbers you read.

Feature preview

Explore the intended workflow

Per-page CMYK estimates

cyan, magenta, yellow, black and total coverage for every page of a PDF, with its size in points, so the heavy pages stand out before anything prints.

Native CMYK values

DeviceCMYK is measured as the file states it, so solid black text stays black ink only; grayscale counts as black, and RGB uses the PDF specification’s formula.

An area-weighted total

the All row weights every page by its area, so a document with mixed page sizes reads correctly and the total matches the paper.

FAQ

Straight answers—no glossary dump

How do I see the CMYK coverage of each page in a PDF?

Open the PDF in InkQuote with Open PDF. As each page is measured, a row appears with its page number, its size, and its C %, M %, Y %, K % and Total % estimates. Select a row to see the page preview and its notes. The All row below the table holds the area-weighted total for the whole document.

Why can Total % be higher than 100?

Total % adds the four channels together. A page with 60 percent cyan, 50 percent magenta, 40 percent yellow and 30 percent black spread across it reads Total 180.0, and the scale tops out at 400. For pricing, the total shows how much ink the page uses altogether, while the single channels show which inks drive it.

How are pages of different sizes combined into one total?

By area. In the All row, each page's figures are weighted by its visible area, so a tabloid page counts twice as much as a letter page at the same coverage. A two-page file with a solid black letter page and a blank tabloid page totals K 33.3, not K 50, because the blank page has twice the area.

What happens to the original PDF?

It is opened for reading only and stays exactly as it was. InkQuote measures the file from a read-only stream and draws its page previews the same way. The quote sheet is always a new PDF that you name in the Windows Save dialog, which suggests the source name followed by InkQuote estimate.pdf, and a save that would land on the open PDF, or on any file in the Recent list, is refused with a sentence naming the file.

Where does the artwork go, and how do I get InkQuote?

InkQuote is coming soon to the Microsoft Store for Windows and is not available to download or purchase yet. Use the email form on its product page to join the waitlist, then confirm your email address. We will send launch updates when there is news. No payment is taken.

Related pages

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