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Guided workflow variation

Coming soon for Windows. Feature preview.

From customer PDFto quote sheet, at the counter.

Someone sends artwork and asks what it will cost. InkQuote turns that file into a coverage table, a price per copy times copies, and a single-sheet quote you can send back the same evening, with every figure labelled an estimate.

Open the customer's PDF, type a price per copy and the copy count, and export a one-page quote sheet that shows the coverage behind the total.

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coming soon for Windows

If this sounds like your week

Quotes get typed up from memory and a glance at the proof.

Busy counters often quote by scrolling through the attachment and typing an amount into an email or a spreadsheet template. Nothing in that amount records what the design looked like. When the order prints heavier than it seemed, there is no reading on file to point to, and the margin quietly drains away during the run.

Where tooling usually breaks

Customers ask why the price changed.

Re-quoting is awkward when the first amount had no basis. A buyer who supplies a revised version with darker backgrounds sees only that the total went up. With nothing to show, the conversation becomes haggling, and staff end up absorbing differences they cannot explain or document for the next order.

Where InkQuote lands

A quote that carries its own evidence.

InkQuote measures the PDF first, so the number starts from estimated C, M, Y and K coverage across the job. The Quote section takes a price per copy and the number of copies, shows the estimate in your Windows currency symbol, and Export quote sheet saves a single page holding the coverage table, the document total and the quote together.

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coming soon for Windows

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 walk-in customer with a USB stick

A customer arrives at the counter with a 12-page newsletter on a USB stick and wants a price for 150 copies before leaving the shop.

The clerk opens the PDF in InkQuote, reads the table and the All row, types the shop's price per copy for that coverage and 150 copies, exports the quote sheet, and uses Open to print it for the customer.

A revised file, a revised price

A customer approved a quote last week, then sends a new version of the brochure with darker photographs and asks why the price has gone up since the first one.

Both quote sheets carry the per-page coverage they were based on. The shop sends the new sheet alongside the old one, and the customer can see which pages got heavier and by how much.

Quotes filed with the job ticket

A print shop wants every quote on file in the same format, so whoever handles a reprint months later can see what the original price was based on.

Each exported sheet is named after its source file, such as brochure - InkQuote estimate.pdf, and holds the date it was prepared, the page table, the document total and the quote, so it files neatly with the artwork.

Deep dive

What goes on an InkQuote quote sheet

The header. The sheet is titled Ink coverage estimate. It names the source file and the date and time it was prepared, so a reprint months later can be traced to the version that was priced.

The page table. Each row carries the page number, its size in points, the C %, M %, Y %, K % and Total % estimates, and any notes, including the names of spot colours on that page. Long documents list their opening pages and then the number of further pages, with every page counted in the total.

The document total. The All row gives the page count and the area-weighted figure for each channel and for the total. Below it, the sheet lists the document's spot colours and spells out each note in full.

The quote. Under the heading Quote (estimate), the sheet shows the copies times the price per copy, then the total in large type. One copy is one printed set of all pages, so a 12-page newsletter at 150 copies is priced as 150 sets. The currency symbol comes from your Windows regional settings.

Paper size. The sheet is Letter in the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Philippines, and A4 everywhere else, so it prints cleanly on the paper already in the tray.

A new file every time. Export quote sheet opens the Windows Save dialog with a suggested name: the source name followed by InkQuote estimate.pdf. InkQuote refuses a save that would land on the artwork you opened or on any file in the Recent list, so a slip in the dialog cannot replace the customer's PDF. After the save, Open shows the sheet in your PDF viewer.

Setting the price per copy. The price is yours. Use the per-page figures to decide where the job sits in your price list, such as light text, mixed, or heavy photo coverage. InkQuote does the multiplication and keeps the coverage beside it, so the reasoning travels with the quote.

Labelled as an estimate. The figure is called an estimate on screen and on the sheet, which keeps the conversation with the customer straightforward when the final job changes. 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.

Head-to-head

How InkQuote compares

Feature InkQuote Spreadsheet by hand Software suite Email from memory
Coverage behind the price Estimated C, M, Y and K for every page, printed on the sheet Typed in if someone measured it Depends on the modules bought None
Setup before the first quote Open a PDF and type two numbers Build and maintain the template Configure products, presses and price lists None, and no record either
Customer-ready output One-page quote sheet PDF, labelled as an estimate Export or print the sheet Formal quote documents The email itself
How it is paid for Coming soon to the Microsoft Store Staff time on every order License terms vary by provider Staff time on every order

FAQ

Straight answers—no glossary dump

How do I make a print quote from a PDF in InkQuote?

Choose Open PDF and pick the customer's file. Check the coverage table and the All row, then open the Quote section, type a price per copy and the number of copies, and read the estimate. Choose Export quote sheet, name the file in the Save dialog, and InkQuote writes a one-page PDF you can send or print.

What does one copy mean on the Quote page?

One copy is one printed set of all pages in the PDF. A 24-page programme quoted at 300 copies means 300 complete programmes, so the price per copy should cover all 24 pages. The total is the price per copy times the number of copies, shown in the currency symbol from your Windows regional settings.

Can I send the quote sheet to the customer?

Yes. The quote sheet is a standard one-page PDF titled Ink coverage estimate, with the source file name, the date, the per-page coverage table, the document total, any spot colours and notes, and the quote itself. Attach it to an email, print it from your PDF viewer with Open, or file it with the job ticket.

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

A PDF ink coverage calculator that reads the CMYK in the file. See which pages cost colour clicks, before the job runs. Every page's C, M, Y and K, in one table.