Controlling Ink Coverage – No Can Do?

[CommiePinko]

I'm producing several books for print on demand.  Such printers often impose CMYK ink coverage limits.  All the research and experimentation I've done leads me to conclude that Affinity products lack this capability, and that producing a PDF compatible with, say, IngramSpark's 240% limit is not possible using Affinity products.  Period.

Yes, no, maybe?  I'd like to be absolutely sure before I get out my credit card and once again submit to InDesign, Photoshop, et al.  I'll refrain from ranting, but there is no work around too tedious, time consuming, or complex that I wouldn't prefer it to supporting Adobe.  (If this sounds like begging, it's because I'm begging.)

[thomaso]

2 hours ago, CommiePinko said:

producing a PDF compatible with, say, IngramSpark's 240% limit is not possible using Affinity

Your link explains some workflows for different apps and methods. Depending on the Affinity app and the data type (vector/pixel) you have various ways in Affinity:

The first mentioned way ("The Intermediate: Where things go wrong with TAC") can be done in Affinity with the Colour and/or Swatches Panel.

For other objects, e.g. a plain photo, the workflow in Affinity requires various steps. The most comfortable is APhoto with its Info Panel, set to show the Total Ink. At first you would convert from RGB to CMYK, or assign an according profile. When converting from RGB to CMYK there is no such UCR/GCR option in Affinity, also you don't have the comfort of an option to set the TAC. As mentioned by @BofG the colour profile is crucial since it defines the TAC, every profile may have its own TAC. Depending on the print process + the print medium they can reduce but also increase the TAC. Once your document is CMYK you can refine the TAC with a Channel Mixer Adjustment and adjust the dark colours (= most ink) which is most likely the black  (as described in your link as "TAC Reduction Method 2 (Ok)").

P.S.: Your specific question appears to be asked / answered a while ago, this topic also includes certain profile suggestions ...

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/102263-questions-about-ingramspark-240-ink-limit/

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