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Windows 10 & Windows 11 Updated 2026-10-15

Estimate the ink on every page and quote the job, on this PC.

InkQuote is a Windows app from Automata Labs that estimates cyan, magenta, yellow, and black coverage for every page of a PDF, from the colour values written in the file, on your PC with nothing uploaded. Read the page table and the area-weighted total, add a price per copy and a copy count, and export a one-page quote sheet as a new PDF that shows the coverage behind the number. The original is never changed.

One-time purchase · 15-day free trial in the Microsoft Store · One-time purchase. No subscriptions. Local-first.
Pay once. Own it forever.

One-time purchase on the Microsoft Store · No subscription · Instant install

Get it from Microsoft

Buy through the Microsoft Store—instant install, automatic updates, and a Microsoft receipt for easy expensing. No account needed on our site, and no subscription on Store purchases.

How it works See the screens

per-page cmyk estimate · native cmyk values · area-weighted total · quote sheet pdf · nothing uploads

InkQuote coverage table and page preview

InkQuote showing a two-page PDF, mixed-sizes.pdf: a 612 by 792 point page at K 100.0 and a 792 by 1224 point page at 0.0, with the All row reading K 33.3, area-weighted, and a preview of the selected page.
Open a PDF and read its coverage page by page: cyan, magenta, yellow, black, and the total, with the area-weighted document total pinned below.

The problem

The customer wants a price tonight, and the file is full of photos.

The running cost of a digital print job rises with the ink or toner it lays down, and a PDF does not say how much a job will use. A page of body text and a full-bleed photo count as one page each but cost very different amounts to run. Price by eye and a heavy job runs at a loss, or a light one loses the customer. Browser calculators render the page to RGB first, so the CMYK in the file makes a round trip before it is measured.

With InkQuote

Open the PDF. Read the coverage. Quote the job.

InkQuote reads the colour values written in the PDF and estimates how much cyan, magenta, yellow, and black each page lays down, with a document total weighted by page area. Type a price per copy and a copy count, and export a one-page quote sheet that shows the coverage behind the number. The original file is only read.

Key benefits

Coverage, a total, and a quote in one window

Cyan, magenta, yellow, and black for every page

The fills, strokes, letters, images, and gradients on the page are painted into a coverage map at about 100 dots per inch, using the colour values written in the PDF. Each page gets its own C %, M %, Y %, K %, and Total % estimate beside its size in points, so the heavy pages stand out before anything is printed.

Reads the CMYK the file asks for

CMYK values are measured as the file states them, so solid black text stays black ink only and never turns into rich black. Grayscale counts as black, and RGB is converted with the PDF specification’s own formula.

A total weighted by page area

A tabloid spread carries more ink than a letter cover at the same coverage. The All row weights every page by its area, so a document with mixed page sizes reads correctly.

Spot colours by name

Spot colours are converted through the file’s own tint transforms, so they count toward the estimate, and they are listed by name for each page and for the whole document.

Price per copy times copies

Type a price per copy and a copy count on the Quote page. One copy is one printed set of all pages, and the total is labelled as an estimate, in your Windows currency symbol.

A one-page quote sheet

Export one page with the coverage table, the document total, the spot colours, the notes, and the quote, so the person pricing the job sees what the number rests on. It is always a new PDF.

How it works

Open, read, price, export

Open

Choose Open PDF and pick the file, or reopen one from the Recent list. A password-protected PDF gets a password box and Retry. Progress reads Page 3 of 12 as InkQuote measures, and Cancel keeps the pages already done.

Read

The table lists every page with its size and its C %, M %, Y %, K %, and Total % estimate. Select a row for the page preview and its notes. The All row gives the area-weighted total for the whole document.

Price

Open the Quote section and type a price per copy and the number of copies. The estimate is price per copy times copies, and the Coverage used panel beside it shows the figures the price rests on.

Export

Choose Export quote sheet and name the new PDF. It holds the page table, the document total, any spot colours, the notes, and the quote. Open shows the saved sheet in your PDF viewer.

Every figure is labelled an estimate, on screen and on the quote sheet, with the coverage behind it in plain view. See it on the screens below.

See it in action

The coverage table, the page detail, and the quote

InkQuote coverage table for a two-page PDF with Page, Size, C %, M %, Y %, K %, Total %, and Notes columns, and the All row reading K 33.3 for all pages, area-weighted.
Every page gets its C, M, Y, K, and total estimate and its size. The All row weights each page by its area, so a tabloid page counts for more than a letter page.
The Windows Save As dialog over the InkQuote Quote page, suggesting the file name mixed-sizes - InkQuote estimate.pdf, the type PDF quote sheet, and a Save quote sheet button.
Export the quote sheet as a new PDF. The Save dialog suggests the name, and the original stays as it was.
The InkQuote Quote page with a price per copy of 12.50 and 250 copies, an estimate of 3,125.00, coverage used of K 33.3 area-weighted, and the line Saved mixed-sizes - InkQuote estimate.pdf beside an Open button.
Price per copy times copies, labelled as an estimate, with the coverage it rests on. Open shows the saved quote sheet in your PDF viewer.

Screenshots use small test PDFs generated for InkQuote’s own test suite. They contain no customer artwork.

Privacy

Nothing uploads

InkQuote runs on your PC in the Windows app sandbox and declares no capabilities, including no network access. It has no account, no login, and no telemetry. It opens only the PDF you pick, writes only the quote sheet you name, and keeps its Recent list in its own local settings.

Customer artwork stays on the counter PC. The PDF is opened read-only and never changed, and a save that would land on it is refused.

What you get

  • C %, M %, Y %, K %, and Total % estimates for every page, to one decimal place
  • An All row with the document total, weighted by page area
  • A preview of the selected page, with its size in points
  • Spot colours listed by name for each page and for the whole document
  • Notes in plain words for each page, in the table and the side pane
  • A Quote page: price per copy times copies, in your Windows currency symbol
  • A one-page quote sheet saved as a new PDF, on Letter or A4 to suit your region
  • Password-protected PDFs, a Cancel that keeps finished pages, and a Recent list of 10 files

Try it on the last job you quoted.

The Microsoft Store runs a 15-day free trial with every feature. Open a PDF you have already priced, read its coverage page by page, and export the quote sheet your customer would get. If it fits your counter, buy it once. There is no subscription.

Pay once. Own it forever.

One-time purchase on the Microsoft Store · No subscription · Instant install

Get it from Microsoft

Buy through the Microsoft Store—instant install, automatic updates, and a Microsoft receipt for easy expensing. No account needed on our site, and no subscription on Store purchases.

Who uses it

  • Small print and copy shops pricing a customer’s PDF at the counter before the job is accepted
  • Prepress operators and estimators checking whether a job’s artwork is heavier than the quote assumed
  • In-house print rooms and reprographics teams charging departments for toner-heavy jobs
  • Shops on click contracts working out which pages of a job carry colour and how heavy they run

FAQ

Quick answers about InkQuote

What is InkQuote?

InkQuote is a Windows app that estimates the cyan, magenta, yellow, and black ink coverage of every page in a PDF, from the colour values written in the file. Add a price per copy and a copy count on the Quote page, and export a one-page quote sheet as a new PDF. It runs on your PC, and nothing uploads.

How do I estimate the ink coverage of a PDF with it?

Choose Open PDF and pick the file, or reopen it from the Recent list. InkQuote measures the pages one by one, showing Page 3 of 12 as it goes, and fills a table with C %, M %, Y %, K %, and Total % for every page. The All row under the table gives the document total, weighted by page area.

What do the C %, M %, Y %, K %, and Total % columns mean?

Each column is the estimated amount of that ink spread over the whole page, as a percentage of the page area. A page of solid black reads K 100.0, and a 50 percent cyan tint across the page reads C 50.0. Total % is the sum of the four channels, so a heavy photo page can read well above 100. Figures show one decimal place.

How does InkQuote read CMYK, RGB, and spot colours?

CMYK artwork is measured from the values the file states, so solid black text stays black ink only rather than turning into rich black. Grayscale counts as black. RGB content is converted with the PDF specification’s own formula, and spot colours go through the file’s own tint transforms and are listed by name for each page.

How does the Quote page work?

Open the Quote section and type a price per copy and the number of copies. InkQuote shows the estimate, price per copy times copies, in the currency symbol from your Windows regional settings. One copy is one printed set of all pages. The Coverage used panel beside it shows the C, M, Y, K, and total figures the price rests on.

What is on the exported quote sheet?

One page titled Ink coverage estimate, with the source file name, the date it was prepared, a page table of size, C, M, Y, K, total, and notes, the area-weighted document total, any spot colours, and the quote: copies times price per copy, and the total. It is saved as a new PDF on Letter or A4 paper to suit your region.

Can it open password-protected PDFs?

Yes. When a PDF needs a password, InkQuote names the file, shows a password box, and measures the file after you choose Retry. A file that is not a PDF, or is damaged, gets one sentence naming the file and the reason, and the Recent list and Open PDF stay right there.

How does it handle long documents?

InkQuote measures page by page and shows its progress as Page N of M. Choose Cancel and it keeps every page measured so far, with the total covering those pages, for example Pages 1–81 of 500. A long catalogue gives you figures to work from without waiting for the last page.

What happens to my original PDF?

It is opened for reading only and stays exactly as it was. The quote sheet is always a new file you name in the Windows Save dialog, which suggests the name of your file followed by InkQuote estimate.pdf, and InkQuote refuses a save that would land on the PDF you opened or on any file in its Recent list.

Where do my files go?

They stay on your PC. InkQuote runs in the Windows app sandbox with no declared capabilities, including no network access, and it has no account and no telemetry. It opens only the PDF you pick and writes only the quote sheet you name. The Recent list lives in the app’s own local settings.

What does it cost, and is there a trial?

InkQuote is a one-time purchase in the Microsoft Store, and the listing shows the current price in your currency. The Store runs a 15-day free trial with every feature, and there is nothing to activate in the app. There is no subscription and there are no in-app purchases.

What Windows version do I need?

Windows 10 version 2004 or later, or Windows 11, on an x64 or ARM64 PC, with a display of 960 by 600 or larger; 1100 by 720 or larger is recommended. InkQuote has light and dark themes, works from the keyboard, and names every control for screen readers.

Still stuck? Email [email protected] after checking the Support Center.

Technical specifications

Technical specifications

Spec Implementation
Data Sovereignty Reads only the PDF you pick in the Windows file picker, read-only, and never writes over it; writes only the quote sheet PDF you name in the save dialog, refusing the open PDF and any file in the Recent list; the Recent list stays in the app’s own local settings
Telemetry Status None; no account, no login, no telemetry, and no networking code in the app
Core Runtime .NET 10 and WinUI 3 (Windows App SDK), packaged as MSIX; runs in an AppContainer with no declared capabilities; the coverage engine is pure managed code
Network Requirements Fully functional offline; the package declares no network capability and the app makes no network calls
Deployment Compatibility Windows 10 version 2004 or later and Windows 11, x64 or ARM64; one-time purchase on the Microsoft Store with a 15-day free trial
Inputs One PDF at a time, picked in the Windows file picker or reopened from a Recent list of 10 files; password-protected PDFs open after the password is entered
Measuring Fills, strokes, text, images and gradients painted into a coverage map at about 100 dots per inch over each page’s visible area; rotated pages handled; a long run can be cancelled with finished pages kept
Colour DeviceCMYK read natively; grayscale counted as black; RGB through the PDF specification’s device formula; ICC-based, Lab, indexed and calibrated spaces resolved; spot colours through their tint transforms, listed by name
Results Per page: size in points, C %, M %, Y %, K % and Total % to one decimal, and notes; per document: area-weighted figures for each channel and the total, spot colour names, and notes
Quote Price per copy times copies, labelled as an estimate, in the Windows currency symbol; one copy is one printed set of all pages
Output One-page quote sheet PDF in CMYK, Letter in the US, Canada, Mexico and the Philippines and A4 elsewhere, with the page table, document total, spot colours, notes and quote
Display 960 × 600 or larger, 1100 × 720 recommended; light and dark themes; every control named for screen readers

Guides by task

Pick the pricing question in front of you

Choosing a coverage tool

PDF ink coverage calculator

For coverage figures you can price from, measure the CMYK the file actually holds, page by page, on your own PC, and keep the result as a quote sheet.

Page-by-page readings

CMYK coverage per page

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

Toner use per job

Toner coverage of a PDF

Compare each page's estimated coverage with the 5 percent baseline behind cartridge yields, and price toner-hungry jobs as what they are, before printing.

Quoting a print job

Print quote from a PDF

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.

Click-charge pricing

Estimate click charges

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.

Related Reading

Workflow

How to Estimate the Ink Coverage of a PDF on Windows

How to estimate the ink coverage of a PDF on Windows: what the percentages mean, the ways to measure them, and the steps in InkQuote, ending in a quote sheet.

Workflow

How to Price a Digital Print Job by Ink Coverage: Methods Compared and a Quote Checklist

How to price a digital print job by ink coverage: four pricing methods compared, a worked example, a quote checklist, and the steps in InkQuote.

Deep Dive

What Is Ink Coverage? CMYK Percentages, Total Coverage, and the 5 Percent Standard

Ink coverage explained: what C, M, Y and K percentages mean, how total coverage reaches 400, where the 5 percent yield standard comes from, and rich black.

A PDF in. Coverage and a quote out.

InkQuote estimates cyan, magenta, yellow, and black for every page from the file’s own colour values, totals them by page area, and turns a price per copy into a one-page quote sheet. The original is never changed, and nothing uploads.

One-time purchase. No subscriptions. Local-first.

Pay once. Own it forever.

One-time purchase on the Microsoft Store · No subscription · Instant install

Get it from Microsoft

Buy through the Microsoft Store—instant install, automatic updates, and a Microsoft receipt for easy expensing. No account needed on our site, and no subscription on Store purchases.

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