Ink Coverage Calculator

This calculator estimates offset-press ink consumption using a standard printing-industry rule of thumb: one pound of ink covers roughly 300,000 square inches at full (100%) coverage. It scales that baseline by your actual coverage percentage, the sheet's printable area, the print run quantity, and how many ink colors are being laid down — so a 4-color (CMYK) job at 40% average coverage consumes four times the ink of a single-color job at the same coverage. The pound figure converts to milliliters (1 lb ≈ 454 mL) for a more intuitive volume, and ink cost is estimated at roughly $25/lb for process inks — a reasonable ballpark but not a quote, since actual pricing varies by supplier, ink type (process vs. spot/PMS), and order volume.

If you select a coating, the calculator layers on additional volume and cost: aqueous coating adds about 50% of the ink volume at roughly $0.033/mL, UV coating adds about 30% at roughly double that rate, reflecting UV's higher per-unit cost despite lower volume. The most common estimation error is coverage percentage: text-heavy pages run 10-20%, photo-heavy pages 30-60%, and solid color fields or bleeds can hit 80-100% — averaging across a whole job (rather than assuming the darkest page) gives the most realistic ink estimate. Treat the cost figures as planning estimates for budgeting a run, not a substitute for a press vendor's actual quote.