Balancing chroma and ink consumption

You can experiment with the light/norm settings to find the best compromise between chroma and ink consumption.

After measuring the ink limit per channel chart, Color Tools displays the following values for each ink channel:

Norm ink—The norm ink limit in the full tone. Color Tools tries to achieve the best possible chroma (C*) for the CMY inks, and the minimum possible L* value (0) for Black.
Norm ink start—The absolute starting point of the norm ink curve, which also adjusts the use of the light inks. This setting influences the transition of light ink to norm ink.
Light ink in full tone—The absolute percentage of light ink in the full tone.
Dot gain at 50%—The dot gain relative to 50%. A value of -5% transforms 50% input values into 45% output values.

Color Tools evaluates the maximum possible color gamut, and the ink consumption required to reproduce a gradient from 0% to 100% of the selected ink channel, taking the light and norm inks, and the pre-ink limits into account.

The following tips will help you to find the best combination:

Do not reduce the percentage of norm and light ink too much. A slight reduction often has little effect on the overall chroma. However, if you use too little ink, spots can appear in the printout. You can check the total ink coverage by printing the visual reference chart.
Use a similar percentage of light ink across all channels that support light ink.
You can reduce ink consumption by introducing norm ink earlier. However, be careful that you do not set the norm ink to start too soon, as it can cause graininess. The recommended norm ink start is between 20% and 40%. Make sure also that the ink curves do not flatten off towards the top end of the scale.
The dot gain affects both norm and light inks. Be aware that this setting affects the printer's native gray balance. Therefore, change it only in special circumstances.