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See which pages cost colour clicks,before the job runs.

Service agreements meter colour impressions at a steeper rate than monochrome, and some tier them by density. InkQuote reveals which sides of a job carry colour and how strongly, so the costly clicks show up before the meter starts turning.

Read each page's C, M and Y figures to spot colour impressions, check how heavy they are, and price the copy so the clicks are covered.

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If this sounds like your week

A single colour logo turns a black page into a colour click.

Production printers and copiers on a service agreement meter each impression, and the meter reading becomes an invoice. Colour impressions carry a far steeper rate than monochrome ones. Most agreements classify an impression as colour the moment any non-black toner touches it, so a tiny logo in a footer quietly converts a long memo into a stack of colour clicks.

Where tooling usually breaks

Tiered contracts make heavy pages dearer still.

Several agreements also split colour impressions into tiers according to how dense the toner is on that side, so a pale chart, a medium graphic and a saturated photograph each bill differently. A flat colour rate on the estimate either inflates small jobs for the client or lets dense jobs eat the profit, and the meter only reveals which happened once the invoice arrives.

Where InkQuote lands

Per-page colour figures, before the first impression.

InkQuote opens the file on your Windows computer and estimates the four process inks for each page. Its C, M and Y columns reveal where colour appears and how strongly, and Total % reveals density, so you can tally colour and monochrome impressions, match pages to your agreement's tiers, and enter a per-copy figure that pays for the clicks.

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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 text manual with colour diagrams

A training company orders 80 copies of a 60-page manual. Most pages are plain text, but some carry colour diagrams, and the shop pays colour clicks only on the impressions that need them.

In InkQuote the C, M and Y columns show which pages carry colour and how much. The shop counts the colour impressions in one copy, builds the price per copy from its colour and black click rates, and exports the quote with the figures attached.

A contract with coverage tiers

The shop's colour device is on a contract that bills colour impressions in three tiers by coverage, and a client's sales deck mixes light slides with full-bleed photo slides.

The per-page table shows each slide's colour figures and total, so the shop compares them with the contract's tier thresholds, prices each copy to match, and keeps the quote sheet as the record of how the price was set.

A footer logo across a long document

A firm sends a 200-page document for 20 copies. Every page is text apart from a small colour logo in the footer, which the shop notices in the page preview.

The C, M and Y columns show colour on every page, and the preview shows where it sits. The shop offers the firm a version with a black logo on the black click rate, and quotes both options with their own sheets.

Deep dive

Working out click charges from per-page coverage

What a click is. On a production printer or copier under a service contract, each impression on one side of a sheet is a click. Black clicks and colour clicks are billed at different rates, and the contract defines what makes an impression colour. Many contracts count any colour on the page.

Count the impressions in one copy. The Quote page treats one copy as one printed set of all pages, so start with the page count in the All row. Each page of the PDF is one impression when the job prints on one side.

Separate colour from black. Read the C %, M % and Y % columns. Any value above zero means the page carries colour, and the preview in the side pane shows where it is. The K % column holds black text and grayscale, which run on the black rate.

Check how heavy the colour runs. Where a contract tiers colour clicks by coverage, compare each page's figures with the thresholds in the contract. Total % adds the four channels for each page, and the per-channel figures show which ink drives it. Contracts measure coverage their own way, so use the comparison as a pricing guide.

Build the price per copy. Multiply the number of black impressions by your black click cost and the colour impressions by the colour click cost, or by the cost for the tier each page falls in. Add paper, finishing and margin, and type the result into Price per copy on the Quote page.

Multiply and export. Type the number of copies. InkQuote shows the estimate, price per copy times copies, and Export quote sheet saves a one-page PDF with the per-page coverage beside the quote, so you can walk the customer through the colour pages.

Offer a black-only option. When a document is mostly text with a little colour, the per-page figures make the conversation easy: show the customer how many pages carry colour, and quote a version with that colour changed to black if they prefer the lower rate.

Keep it on the counter PC. InkQuote runs on Windows with no network access, opens the customer's PDF read-only, and writes only the quote sheet you name. InkQuote is coming soon. Join the waitlist for launch updates.

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

What is a click charge in digital printing?

A click charge is the per-impression fee on a printer or copier under a service contract. It usually covers toner, parts and service, and colour impressions cost more than black ones. Some contracts also bill colour clicks in tiers by how much of the page is covered, so heavy pages cost more to run than light ones.

How does InkQuote help estimate click charges?

It shows the estimated cyan, magenta, yellow and black coverage of every page of the PDF, plus the total. The C, M and Y columns show which pages carry colour and how much, and Total % shows how heavy each page runs. Use those figures with your click rates to set the price per copy on the Quote page.

Can I quote colour and black pages at different rates?

Yes. Count the pages with colour and the black-only pages from the table, multiply each group by its click rate, add paper and finishing, and enter the result as the price per copy. InkQuote multiplies it by the number of copies and exports a quote sheet that lists the per-page coverage, so the split is documented.

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

Know the toner a job needs before it reaches the printer. From customer PDF to quote sheet, at the counter. Every page's C, M, Y and K, in one table.