There are properties that help you to determine ink related parameters, these are "Effective ink coverage” and "Effective total area coverage (TAC)”.

And there are properties that can be used to get information related to plates and separations: "Effective ink coverage for separated plates” (is there anything that is rendered on a plate), "Effective ink coverage for registration color” (is there registration color) and "Number of effectively non-empty plates”. Similar works "Area effectively covered by ink amount above threshold”, but here you are more interested in the covered area than in the total ink.

"Effective ink coverage - limit to custom area” is a general helper property that allows you to limit the area. "Effective ink coverage in custom area” should not be used anymore and will be deprecated at some point, it is just a special case of the more general helper property approach.

To get started, there is a helpful tool to visualize the results of the Check:

1. In Test Mode, you can check the "Log Profile Execution" and the "Ink coverage" checkboxes.
2. When the test mode is activated and an ink coverage hit is reported, a log profile execution with an ink coverage preview image is generated.
3. The ink coverage previews are stored in a folder named 'Ink coverage'.
4. The affected areas are highlighted in color. This makes it easier to see where in the PDF document the threshold is triggered. The same color coding scheme as the Ink coverage visualiser in ‘Highlighting ‘mode’ is used. In addition, a Cyan overlay is added to the areas where the threshold was triggered:

This Check property determines whether the total ink coverage is outside of the threshold. It allows you to identify whether a PDF document has areas on a page where there is too much ink to prevent potential printing problems.

1. Operator for the Threshold.
2. Threshold in % for ink coverage.
3. The size of the sample defines the size of the relevant area i.e. the number of adjacent pixels taken into account for measuring the actual ink amount. The smaller the sample size, the more accurate the trigger values (process time increases).
4. Enables auto adjustment of the sample size for PDF files with at least one page dimension greater than 75 cm. Read more about Smart Resolution here.
5. If the checkbox is checked the whole page will be evaluated. If the checkbox is unchecked the evaluation is stopped after the first hit that is above the threshold. The trigger values of the Check result depend on whether the checkbox is activated or not. If you are interested in the exact trigger values, the checkbox should be checked.

• With enabled checkbox, two trigger values are provided: 325.0% (max. ink coverage), 24.108% (total area above threshold)

This Check is a variation of the "Effective ink coverage" property. It allows you to limit the Check to one or more specific plates so that only those plates are considered for the ink coverage. It can be used to determine if a particular ink is being used at all, or if a particular amount of ink is being used on a particular plate.

1. Operator for the Threshold.
2. Threshold in % for ink coverage. The threshold defines the minimum ink amount for a plate in order to be taken into account.
3. The size of the sample defines the size of the relevant area i.e. the number of adjacent pixels taken into account for measuring the actual ink amount. The smaller the sample size, the more accurate the trigger values (process time increases).
4. Enables auto adjustment of the sample size for PDF files with at least one page dimension greater than 75 cm. Read more about Smart Resolution here.
5. In the list of plates @spot or @process may be used in order to render all spot color plates or all process color plates. If more than one plate is to be specified, they must be entered in the list one below the other.
6. If the checkbox is checked the whole page will be evaluated. If the checkbox is unchecked the evaluation is stopped after the first hit that is above the threshold. The trigger values of the Check result depend on whether the checkbox is activated or not. If you are interested in the exact trigger values for each plate, the checkbox should be checked.

• With enabled checkbox, two trigger values are provided: 100% (max. ink coverage), 24.53% (total area above threshold)

It is determined whether any pixels using registration color are present in the document. A hit means that the actual amount of ink for such registration color objects is outside of the thresholds. Typical values are 1-2 % for the threshold.

1. Operator for the Threshold.
2. Threshold in % for ink coverage. The threshold defines the minimum ink amount for registration color in order to be taken into account.
3. The size of the sample defines the size of the relevant area i.e. the number of adjacent pixels taken into account for measuring the actual ink amount.
4. Enables auto adjustment of the sample size for PDF files with at least one page dimension greater than 75 cm. Read more about Smart Resolution here.
5. If the checkbox is checked the whole page will be evaluated. If the checkbox is unchecked the evaluation is stopped after the first hit that is above the threshold. The trigger values of the Check result depend on whether the checkbox is activated or not. If you are interested in the exact trigger value, the checkbox should be checked.

• With enabled checkbox, two trigger values are provided: 58.505% (max. ink coverage), 1.64% (total area above threshold)

For this property every plate is rendered internally and it is determined whether there is an ink coverage within any area of the plate that is above the threshold.  All plates with an ink coverage above the threshold are added to the number of effectively non-empty plates (that means that the Check will count all effectively used plates).

1. Operator for the Threshold.
2. Total number of non-empty plates.
3. Threshold in % for ink coverage. The threshold defines the minimum ink amount for a plate in order to be taken into account.
4. The size of the sample defines the size of the relevant area i.e. the number of adjacent pixels taken into account for measuring the actual ink amount.
5. Enables auto adjustment of the sample size for PDF files with at least one page dimension greater than 75 cm. Read more about Smart Resolution here.

• One trigger values is provided: 5 (total number of non-empty plates), additionally all plate names are listed

It is determined whether the total ink coverage is outside of the threshold. Additionally, the area which shall be used for analysing can be defined as a rectangle. The rendering for the ink coverage evaluation is then restricted to the custom area. Note: this should not be combined with other properties or settings that limit the area to be analysed.

1. Operator for the Threshold.
2. Threshold in % for ink coverage.
3. The size of the sample defines the size of the relevant area i.e. the number of adjacent pixels taken into account for measuring the actual ink amount. The smaller the sample size in the check property, the more accurate the trigger values will be.
4. If the checkbox is checked the whole page will be evaluated. If the checkbox is unchecked the evaluation is stopped after the first hit that is above the threshold. The trigger values (5a) of the Check result depend on whether the checkbox is activated or not. If you are interested in the exact trigger values, the checkbox should be checked.
5. Enables auto adjustment of the sample size for PDF files with at least one page dimension greater than 75 cm. Read more about Smart Resolution here.
6. There are two methods to define the custom area:
   - "Offset and width / height": "Relative to" sets the origin point. All subsequent parameters are based on this origin (e.g. if the origin point is set to top left corner, a negative vertical offset will move the origin down, while a positive offset will move the origin up).
   - "Offsets to box edges":  Takes the size of a page geometry box as a reference for the custom area. Negative values reduce the size of the page geometry box. Positive values increase the size.

• With enabled checkbox (4), two trigger values are provided: 100% (max. ink coverage in custom area), 96.236% (total area above threshold in custom area)

This Check property can be combined with any of the other ink coverage Check properties (except “Effective ink coverage in custom area“). This Check property will never directly create any hit, it has to be added to another ink coverage Check property. If an ink coverage Check is limited to a custom area the rendering for the ink coverage evaluation is restricted to the specified area. The property can also be used multiple times inside a Check in order to specify multiple areas.

Effect of “Fire if any condition is met” setting

• If the checkbox is checked the Check generates a hit if at least one area satisfies the Check condition (OR).
• If the checkbox is unchecked the Check generates a hit if all areas satisfies the Check condition (AND).

1. If the checkbox is checked all areas are evaluated. If the checkbox is unchecked the evaluation is stopped after the first area that generates a hit.
2. First "Effective ink coverage - limit to custom area" Check property to limit the ink coverage Check to a custom area
3. Two methods to define the custom area: 1. Offset and width / height:
   "Relative to" sets the origin point. All subsequent parameters are based on this origin (e.g. if the origin point is set to top left corner, a negative vertical offset will move the origin down, while a positive offset will move the origin up).
4. Second "Effective ink coverage - limit to custom area" Check property to limit the ink coverage Check to a custom area
5. Second method to define the custom area: Offsets to box edges (inwards - /outwards +):
   Takes the size of a page geometry box as a reference for the custom area. Negative values reduce the size of the page geometry box. Positive values increase the size.

• With enabled checkbox (1), two trigger values are provided: 325.0% (max. ink coverage in custom area), 96.234% (total area above threshold in custom area)

Total area coverage is the size of the area that would be filled if all used ink would be printed with 100 %. It shows the ink usage for one or more plates as a percentage of the total page. For example, if the entire page is covered with, 50% Cyan, it will have the same Total Area Coverage value as if the page were only half covered but with 100% Cyan. The ink usage of the defined plates is added up. This means, for example, that the highest trigger value for all process colors could be 400%.

1. Operator for the threshold.
2. Size of the area that should be taken into account.
3. The size of the sample defines the size of the relevant area. i.e. the number of adjacent pixels taken into account for measuring the actual ink amount.
4. In the list of plates @spot or @process may be used in order to render all spot color plates or all process color plates. If more than one plate is to be specified, they must be entered in the list one below the other.
5. Enables auto adjustment of the sample size for PDF files with at least one page dimension greater than 75 cm. Read more about Smart Resolution here.
6. The trigger values depend on whether the checkbox is checked or unchecked. If the checkbox is checked, in addition to the total area coverage value (sum of all plates), all individual TAC values (for each plate) are also determined and reported in the trigger values. If the checkbox is not checked, only the total area coverage value (sum of all plates) is reported.

• With enabled checkbox, three trigger values are provided: 75.098% (TAC), 50% (TAC Cyan), 25.1% (TAC Magenta)

Determines the total area with a specified ink amount. The threshold is the minimum amount of ink per plate to be considered. It can be used to detect pages that have only small areas of ink. The ink amount of a single plate (e.g. if 50% of Cyan or 100% of Cyan is part of the page) is not taken into account. The focus is on the area covered by ink, therefore the trigger value will never exceed 100 %.

1. Operator for the threshold.
2. Size of the area that should be taken into account.
3. Threshold is the minimum ink amount per plate to be taken into account.
4. The size of the sample defines the size of the relevant area i.e. the number of adjacent pixels taken into account for measuring the actual ink amount. In order to accurately determine the area, rather small sample sizes have to be used. e.g. 1 square millimetre (will increase processing time).
5. Enables auto adjustment of the sample size for PDF files with at least one page dimension greater than 75 cm. Read more about Smart Resolution here.
6. In the list of plates @spot or @process may be used in order to render all spot color plates or all process color plates. If more than one plate is to be specified, they must be entered in the list one below the other.
7. The trigger values depend on whether the checkbox is checked or unchecked. If the checkbox is checked, in addition to the area that is effectively covered by ink, the areas for each specified plate (in this example for C, M, Y, K) are also determined and reported in the trigger values.

• With enabled checkbox, five trigger values are provided: 100% (total), 0% (Black), 0% (Yellow), 50% (Magenta), 50% (Cyan)