When an offset job has a press (the job's own, or the team's default offset press), each form's inks are counted against the press's units, and plans are priced per plate and per pass. Items' inks come from Item inks: detected and declared.
Ink limit#
- Fit the press (the default on offset)
- Ganging never adds a pass: a form needs no more passes than its neediest item would need on its own. An item with 6 inks on a 5-unit press still runs in 2 passes, and other items may ride along in those passes; a form of one-pass items never needs two.
- Allow extra passes
- Items may share a form that needs extra passes when that is cheaper, up to the press's maximum passes. Every pass is costed (makeready and impressions), so the plan compares one form in two passes with two forms in one.
- Warn only
- Nothing is refused; forms that need more passes say so.
- Off
- No check. Plans are still priced with their plates and passes.
A form whose coatings the press can't apply (no matching coater and no unit allowed) or whose cold foil has no foil unit is refused under Fit the press and Allow extra passes, even for one item alone; choose another press or set the limit to Warn only.
Without a press, ink limits aren't checked and a run note says so.
Work styles#
| Work style | Passes | Plates |
|---|---|---|
| Single-sided or sheetwise, straight press | front inks ÷ units, plus back inks ÷ units (each rounded up) | every ink of each side |
| Perfecting, units split k / (n − k) | 1 when the front fits k units and the back n − k; else more | the same |
| Convertible perfector (Auto) | the fewest of straight, perfecting, or perfecting plus top-ups | the same |
Auto uses the press's perfecting when it has one. Work-and-turn and work-and-tumble aren't available yet: the imposed PDF prints the front of each item only, and the back is counted as a back-up of the same layout.
What a plan shows#
Each form lists its front and back inks, plates, passes and the press mode. The Production tab's Forms & inks table adds the run, printed sheets and impressions, with totals of plates, passes and wash-ups. Wash-ups are an estimate (≈): forms are ordered so that spot inks change as little as possible; house inks (usually CMYK) stay loaded.
The run sheet export gains the group, front and back inks, plates, passes, mode and run order of each form, and the plate list export has one row per plate with its pass and a suggested unit.
Worked example#
Four items on a 5-unit press: Postcards A and B (CMYK), Flyer C (CMYK + PMS 185 C) and Flyer D (CMYK + PMS 286 C). All four need 6 inks: 2 passes. C with A, and D with B, need 5 inks each: 1 pass.
- At short runs Allow extra passes picks one form in two passes: fewer plates and one makeready set.
- At long runs two forms in one pass each win, because each sheet is printed once.
- Fit the press never puts PMS 185 C and PMS 286 C on one form here, because no item needs 2 passes alone.
Digital presses and special stations#
Digital presses have no ink-unit limit: spot colours are printed from CMYK. A press with special stations (white, clear, metallic) prints those inks only from a station loaded with them, in the right layer (white under, clear over). Items needing a special ink the press hasn't loaded get a preflight warning; with Special stations: Require the run is refused and names them. Allow extra passes doesn't apply to digital runs.