Affinity Publisher & IngramSpark — Ink Coverage Fix | BookReady
Using Affinity Publisher? Your default black is over IngramSpark's limit. Check my file free →

Affinity Publisher's default black
is getting you rejected.

Every file you export from Affinity Publisher with default settings exceeds IngramSpark's Total Ink Coverage limit. Here's exactly why — and how to fix it in 30 seconds.

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If you format your book in Affinity Publisher and keep getting rejected by IngramSpark with no clear explanation — this is almost certainly why. It's not your formatting. It's not your layout. It's a single default setting that Affinity Publisher ships with that puts every exported PDF over IngramSpark's ink limit.

The problem: Affinity Publisher's default black

Affinity Publisher's default black color is defined as a rich black: C72 M68 Y67 K88. This looks perfectly black on screen and in print — but it has a Total Ink Coverage (TIC) of 295%.

IngramSpark's maximum allowed TIC is 240%. That means every single page of black text in your manuscript is 55 percentage points over the limit.

Affinity Publisher default black (C72 M68 Y67 K88)
295% TIC
IngramSpark maximum allowed
240% TIC
True black / pure K (0 0 0 100)
100% TIC ✓
⚠ Important This isn't a bug Affinity has fixed. Rich black is intentional — it looks better on coated paper for marketing materials. But for book interiors on uncoated paper, you need pure K black. Affinity Publisher doesn't warn you about this when exporting for book publishing.

Why IngramSpark rejects it silently

IngramSpark runs an automated preflight check on every uploaded PDF. When your TIC exceeds 240%, it fails the check and returns a generic error message — usually "File does not meet specifications" — with no mention of ink coverage. Most authors spend days trying to fix formatting issues that have nothing to do with the real problem.

How to fix it in Affinity Publisher

1
Open your Affinity Publisher document
Before re-exporting, you need to change the black swatch your document uses for body text.
2
Open the Swatches panel
Go to View → Studio → Swatches. Find the black swatch your document uses. It's likely labeled "Black" but defined as C72 M68 Y67 K88.
3
Edit the black swatch to pure K
Double-click the black swatch. Change the values to C0 M0 Y0 K100. This is "true black" — 100% TIC, well within IngramSpark's limit. Click OK.
4
Re-export as PDF
Export your document. In the PDF export dialog, ensure "Embed fonts" is checked and consider selecting PDF/X-1a if you want to satisfy that IngramSpark requirement simultaneously.
5
Verify before uploading
Run the new PDF through BookReady to confirm TIC is now compliant across all pages, and check for any other issues before uploading to IngramSpark.

The faster option: let BookReady fix it automatically

If you don't want to go back into Affinity Publisher and redo your export, BookReady can fix the TIC issue directly in your existing PDF. Upload your current file — BookReady uses Ghostscript to convert all rich blacks to pure K black throughout the document, then returns a fixed PDF that passes IngramSpark's preflight check.

The fixed file also gets PDF/X-1a compliance, TrimBox on every page, correct metadata, and even page count — all the other things IngramSpark checks for — in the same $9 download.

Fix your Affinity Publisher PDF in 30 seconds.

Upload your PDF free. BookReady detects and auto-fixes the TIC issue along with 16 other IngramSpark requirements.

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