Pigment Ratio Calculator

This calculator works backward from your desired opacity level to a pigment weight, treating pigment loading as a percentage of your total mixed resin weight rather than a fixed dose. It converts your resin volume to grams (28.35 g per fluid ounce) as the base, then applies the percentage associated with your target opacity — roughly 2% for translucent, 5% for semi-opaque, 10% for fully opaque — and adjusts that percentage by a concentration factor specific to pigment form: powder pigments like mica or oxide get a 0.7× factor because they're more concentrated and go further per gram, while paste pigments get 1.2× because they're less concentrated, and liquid pigment is the 1.0× baseline. The result converts back to ounces and to an approximate teaspoon measure (5 g per teaspoon) for kitchen-scale measuring without a fine gram scale.

The cure-risk warning triggers once the actual pigment loading — opacity percentage times the pigment-type factor — exceeds 10% of total resin weight, since additives above roughly that threshold can interfere with the resin-hardener reaction, leaving the cure soft, tacky, or incomplete regardless of how long you wait. A common mixup worth knowing: opacity and pigment-type factor compound, so choosing the "opaque" preset with paste pigment (10% times 1.2 equals 12%) can push you past the cure-risk threshold even though 10% alone would be safe — if you hit the warning, either back off the opacity target or switch to a more concentrated pigment form like powder to hit the same visual opacity with less total additive.