Total Area Coverage (TAC)

What is Total Area Coverage (TAC / TIC)?

Total Area Coverage (TAC), also known as Total Ink Coverage (TIC), is the sum of the percentages of the four process inks (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key/Black) in the darkest parts of an artwork.

Mathematically, it is calculated as: $$\text{TAC} = \text{Cyan}% + \text{Magenta}% + \text{Yellow}% + \text{Black}%$$

For example, a rich black color containing 80% C, 70% M, 70% Y, and 100% K has a TAC of 320%. The theoretical maximum is 400% (100% of all four inks).

The Print Risk: Wet Ink and Paper Saturation

Applying too much ink to a page leads to severe production issues:

• Ink Smudging: The paper becomes oversaturated, and the ink cannot dry quickly enough on the press.
• Set-off: Wet ink transfers from the front of one sheet to the back of the sheet stacked on top of it.
• Paper Tearing: Wet, soggy paper can wrinkle, stretch, or tear as it passes through high-speed rollers.

Standard limits:

• Coated paper (e.g. brochures): Max 300% coverage.
• Uncoated/Newsprint: Max 220% - 240% coverage.

How Filecheck Automates TAC Auditing and Auto-Fixing

Filecheck’s inspection engine scans documents and images using a secondary-pass pixel analysis:

1. Saturation Heatmap: We analyze the combined CMYK channel percentages for every raster pixel and vector object.
2. Limit Violations: If any area exceeds your shop’s configured threshold (e.g. 300%), Filecheck flags the specific coordinates where the threshold is breached.
3. Autofix for Raster Images: For uploaded photographs and bitmap files, Filecheck automatically fixes excessive TAC. We apply a targeted ICC Profile Conversion (using profiles engineered with ink limits, such as ISO Coated v2 300% or custom device-link profiles). This down-converts the CMYK ink weights in heavy shadow areas while preserving visual contrast, producing a press-ready file instantly.