What is 5% page coverage?

It means ink or toner covers 5% of the page area, roughly a page of typed text. ISO/IEC 19752 rates monochrome toner yield by printing a standard test page of about that coverage until the cartridge runs out; ISO/IEC 19798 uses a set of colour pages of about 5% per colour.

How do I calculate pages from my coverage?

Pages ≈ rated yield × 5% ÷ your coverage. A cartridge rated at 3,000 pages gives about 1,500 pages at 10% coverage and 600 at 25%. Real yield also depends on print settings, toner save mode, humidity and how long the cartridge sits.

How is coverage measured from an image?

Each pixel is converted from RGB to CMYK (K = 1 − max(R, G, B), C = (1 − R − K) ÷ (1 − K), and so on) and the values are averaged over the image. Black-toner coverage for a grayscale print is the average darkness, 1 − luminance. Printers use their own colour profiles, so treat the result as an estimate.

Is my image uploaded?

No. The file is read and analysed in your browser with the Canvas API; it is not sent to any server.

Export or screenshot each PDF page as a PNG or JPG first, then upload it. Prepress RIP software and Acrobat Output Preview give exact separation coverage for PDFs.

What is Total Area Coverage (TAC)?

TAC is the sum of the C, M, Y and K percentages at a point or averaged over an area, up to 400%. Press limits (often 260–340% depending on paper and profile) apply to the darkest areas, not the page average.

Ink Coverage Calculator

Upload an image to measure its C, M, Y and K ink coverage and black-toner coverage in your browser, see how many pages a cartridge rated at 5% coverage will really print and the cost per page, or estimate press ink in grams and litres for a run.

Measure coverage from an image

PNG, JPG, WebP or GIF of a page. Analysed in your browser — nothing is uploaded.

Page image

No image yet. Tip: export PDF pages as PNG first.

Cost per page vs the 5% ISO page

Cartridge yields are rated at about 5% coverage (ISO/IEC 19752 mono toner, 19798 colour toner, 24711 inkjet).

Cartridge price ($)

Rated yield (pages)

Your coverage (%)

Pages you get

—

Cost per page

—

At 5% (rated)

—

Print Run Configuration

Physical calculation: Area × Coverage × Film Thickness × Density × Copies

Print Mode:

Dimensions

Width (mm)

Height (mm)

Area: 623.70 cm² (62,370 mm²)

Ink Properties (TDS)

Film (µm)

Density (g/cm³)

Use wet-film and density values from the ink or press technical data sheet.

Production Run

Impressions

Waste Buffer %

Allowance for makeready, rollers, and waste

Spot / Single-Color Coverage

Coverage fraction of the total printable surface area

40.0%

Theoretical Ink Mass

— g

— kg

Theoretical Ink Volume

— mL

— L

Recommended Order with Waste Allowance +15%

Covers duct charging, roller train, and setup sheets

Order Weight

—

grams

Weight (kg)

—

kilograms

Order Volume

—

milliliters

Volume (L)

—

liters

Separation Breakdown (Per Channel)

Channel	Coverage	Base Weight	With Buffer	Base Vol	Buffered Vol

Per-Impression Data

Sheet Area —

Effective Ink Area —

Ink Weight / Copy —

Ink Volume / Copy —

Physical Unit Relations

1 µm (micron) = 10⁻⁴ cm = 0.001 mm
1 cm³ = 1 mL
Mass (g) = Volume (mL) × Density (g/cm³)
Coverage is area percentage; TAC is the sum of all separation layers.

Theoretical consumption reflects transfer volume. Real production varies by stock absorbency, nip pressure, fountain solution balance, and roller charging.

Pages per cartridge by coverage

Pages ≈ rated yield × 5% ÷ your coverage. Rows show a cartridge rated at 1,000 pages (ISO 5% page); scale to your cartridge.

Estimated pages and relative toner use by page coverage for a 1,000-page cartridge
Coverage	Typical page	Pages (1,000 rated)	Toner vs ISO page
2.5%	Short letter, light text	2,000	×0.5
5%	ISO/IEC 19752 test page, typed text	1,000	×1
10%	Text with a logo or table	500	×2
15%	Dense text, small chart	333	×3
20%	Slides, charts	250	×4
30%	Large graphics	167	×6
50%	Photo page	100	×10
100%	Solid fill	50	×20

Rated yields are averages from continuous printing under test conditions; toner-save modes, page setup and environment change real results.

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Quick answer

Ink coverage is the share of the page that ink or toner covers: a typical text letter is about 5%, which is the page ISO/IEC 19752 (mono toner) uses to rate cartridge yield, and ISO/IEC 19798 colour yields use pages of about 5% per colour. Pages you get ≈ rated yield × 5% ÷ your coverage, so a 2,000-page cartridge prints about 1,000 pages at 10% coverage and 400 at 25%. Cost per page = cartridge price ÷ those pages. Upload a page image here to measure its coverage per C, M, Y and K.

Examples

Your coverage	Pages from a 2,000-page (5%) cartridge	Cost per page at $60
2.5% (light text)	4,000	$0.015
5% (ISO test page)	2,000	$0.030
10% (text + logo)	1,000	$0.060
20% (charts)	500	$0.120
50% (photo page)	200	$0.300

Upload a page image to measure its coverage, then enter your cartridge price and rated yield.

Summary

Office printer yields are rated on a page with about 5% coverage (ISO/IEC 19752 for mono toner, ISO/IEC 19798 for colour toner, ISO/IEC 24711 for inkjet), so real pages with logos, charts or photos print far fewer pages than the box says. This calculator reads an uploaded image in your browser (nothing is uploaded to a server), converts every pixel to C, M, Y and K with a simple RGB-to-CMYK separation, and reports average coverage per channel, total area coverage and the black-toner coverage of a grayscale print. Enter the cartridge price and rated yield to get the real pages and cost per page at that coverage. For offset, flexo and screen work, the press estimator turns coverage, sheet size, film thickness and ink density into grams, kilograms, millilitres and litres for the whole run, with a makeready allowance.

How it works

Upload a PNG, JPG, WebP or GIF of your page (export PDF pages as images first); it is analysed in your browser.
Read the C, M, Y and K coverage, total area coverage (TAC) and the black coverage for a grayscale print.
Enter the cartridge price and its rated yield; the 5% ISO page is the baseline.
The tool estimates pages = yield × 5% ÷ your coverage and the cost per page.
For press jobs, send the measured coverage to the CMYK estimator and add sheet size, film thickness, density, impressions and waste.

Use cases

Checking why a toner cartridge printed fewer pages than its rated yield.
Pricing a print job or flyer by cost per page from its real coverage.
Comparing the toner cost of a logo-heavy letterhead with a plain one.
Measuring CMYK coverage and TAC of artwork before sending it to press.
Estimating kilograms of ink to order for an offset or flexo run.

Frequently Asked Questions

Last updated: 2026-10-10 · Reviewed by Nham Vu