Inkcost — Print Production, Bleed & Ink Cost

Inkcost — Print Production, Bleed & Ink Cost — a premium, 100% offline digital tool by Aceplore. Runs entirely in your browser: no accounts, no subscriptions, your data never leaves your device.

A private, offline planner for getting artwork onto paper — bleed and safe area, how many pieces really fit on the sheet once you try it rotated, what the ink lays down against the press limit, and what the job costs each — 31 tools in one.

31 built-in tools in one app. A piece list carrying trim size, bleed, safe area, page count and sides, each drawn to scale with the three boxes and the margins between them; press sheets with their gripper and side lay, and the usable area those leave; paper stocks with weight, bulk and price, a caliper view deriving thickness from gsm × bulk and the spine a page count implies, and a finished-weight view for postage; an imposition engine that tests BOTH orientations and names the winner, because choosing the wrong one doubles the paper — an A5 at 154 × 216 mm fits 2-up upright on a 450 × 320 sheet and 4-up rotated; sheet yield for a quantity with makeready and running waste, the gripper cost in yield, and trim waste as a share of the sheet; total area coverage summed from the four channels and set against the press limit YOU enter rather than one the app assumes, spot colours and what each extra plate costs, and the plate count the colours and sides require; a cost build-up line by line — paper, plates, press, finishing, waste — with the shares each takes, a quantity-break table showing where setup stops dominating, a page-count and signature view, a printable quote and a side-by-side comparison of two specifications; plus CSV exports, a JSON backup, and a Method page holding every formula with a worked example.

Sheets up. 154 × 216 into a 440 × 320 usable area gives 2 across and 1 down = 2-up. Rotated to 216 × 154 it gives 2 across and 2 down = 4-up. Inkcost reports both, names the winner and states the gain, because this single decision is the largest avoidable cost in the job.

Total area coverage. C + M + Y + K summed: 60 + 45 + 40 + 85 = 230%. Inkcost compares that to the limit you set per press and flags it when over. It ships no default limit, because a coated sheet and newsprint are not the same press and pretending otherwise is how artwork gets rejected.

Cost per piece. 1,438 sheets at 0.42 = 603.96, plates 4 × 25 = 100, press 5 × 38 = 190, finishing 120 — a total of 1,013.96, which is 0.202792 each at 5,000. Every line is editable and every share is shown.

What's included:

• Inkcost.html
• Quick-Start-Guide.html
• How-To-Use-Guide.html
• README.txt
• LICENSE.txt

Includes a personalized welcome wizard, an interactive guided tour, a ⌘K command palette, light/dark themes with 8 accents, and one-click JSON backup & restore.

Inkcost is a specification, costing and record-keeping tool for design and production work. Every figure it reports is computed by a stated formula from the sizes, prices, counts and rates YOU enter, and every figure carries its UNIT, because px, pt, mm, bytes, milliseconds and dpi are different quantities and confusing them is the classic failure in this field. Where a geometry has to close — a grid against its container, a proration, a coverage matrix — it is reconciled rather than rounded, and a disagreement is reported instead of absorbed. Where a rule comes from a published standard or an industry convention, the standard is named and its parameters are yours to change; where a figure rests on something you assumed rather than measured, it is labelled an assumption at the point of use. Nothing here is a guarantee of a passed press check, a performance score, an approved brand or an available name, and none of it is legal advice — trademark, licensing and accessibility obligations differ by country and by contract, and availability and registration must be confirmed with the registries and rights holders themselves. You are solely responsible for what you send to press, ship to a browser or put your name to.