Ink Usage Calculations

[Graphic Extremes]

How is everyone calculating the amount of ink used for the printing..

ONYX ink usage must be way off. I did a test with to identical solid blocks of ink print. 12 by 12 solid black box and 24 by 24 . Using the built in calculator, it shows $1.03 for the 12 by 12 black solid box but changing the color of the 12 by 12 to red it changes the cost to $1.32 Printing the 24 by 24 black solid color box show a cost of $4.12, changing the color of the 24 by 24 to red it changes the cost to $5.22.

How can you price per square foot if ink cost change that much.

Not sure how ONYX is calculating the ink usage.

Any ideas on how to get a closer ink cost per sq foot.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[Solventinkjet]

I don't use Onyx enough to tell you exactly where it is but, there should be an ink calculation settings menu where you input info like your ink costs and size etc. That way it's tailored to your specific machine and ink. That should get you closer. The reason is varies so much is it's calculating based off of a bunch of settings like resolution and ink limits. So whatever color profile you're using might use more ink to achieve certain colors and less on others.

 

[Humble PM]

Is 24x24" not four times larger than 12x12".

Assumtion might be that it is only showing 100K rather than rich black, but red is M&Y?

 

[Graphic Extremes]

Is 24x24" not four times larger than 12x12".

Assumtion might be that it is only showing 100K rather than rich black, but red is M&Y?

yes 24 by 24 is 4 times larger so you would think that the base of black at $1.03 time 4 would be 5.28. ONYX is only saying it's $4.12. Math doesn't add up

 

[ONYXtechtips]

If you have enabled ink cost calculation within the RIP Queue, it will count all of the dots that were ripped into the file. Ink drops are measured in picolitres. It will count all of the dots and associate a cost based on how you have established your ink costing. In Manage Printers, you can establish those settings. I believe that the ink droplet by default is set to 4 pL. The correction factor will increase or decrease the droplet size. Set your ink cost for that channel by entering the dollar amount per milliliter.

In the Quickset, you must enable ink calculation so that it will count the dots after it is ripped. Be aware that this will increase rip time since it needs to count every single dot for each channel after the RIP file is established. This is found in the advanced options under Output.

After this is set, you will see the amount of ink in either the Active or Inactive Queue in RIP Queue. This may need to be enabled by right clicking the menu bar and placing a check next to Total Ink.

In ONYX Hub, it will also get any feedback from the printer if your printer is enabled including actual ink amounts fired. The situation you have is that standard 100/100 red is firing 2 channels. If you are printing straight black, it is firing one. Process black will fire 4 channels and the number of dots for each channel are different based on the percentage of ink in the profile. Thus you will have variation in costs.