The problem
My printer told me that my PDF has excessive total ink coverage in some dark areas and asked me to reduce it. However, I don't know how to verify if this is true or how to intervene without ruining the colors
Cause and analysis
The PDF contains areas with total ink coverage (TIC) exceeding the limit tolerated by offset printing, likely around 240–300% — a common condition when CMYK color layers accumulate without control in the darkest areas
The client's visual perception that 'reducing TIC could ruin the colors' may stem from a false equivalence between coverage reduction and loss of saturation — in reality, an intelligent recombination of CMYK values can maintain visual appearance while reducing the overall percentage sum
Solution proposed by GPX
The current TIC value of the PDF can be verified through Acrobat Pro's Preflight function ('Analyze CMYK values' or similar report), and once known will allow you to calibrate the optimization intervention without adopting generic thresholds
Limitations of this analysis
This analysis is generated with the support of Artificial Intelligence: always verify its correctness and applicability before using it. The reliability level of this analysis is 'Medium', not the highest possible.