Use this article when your shop runs a flatbed UV, latex, or eco-solvent sheet press (SwissQprint, Durst, HP Latex flatbed, Mimaki JFX) and you need to understand how Estimator prices a large-format sheet-fed run. After this you will know how square-metre costing works, where ink coverage tiers fit in, and what makes flatbed work different from a sheet-fed digital press.
What a large-format sheet-fed press is in Estimator
A large-format sheet-fed press is a record under Estimate Setup → Print Machines → Large Format → Sheet-Fed. Estimator prices flatbed work by ink area rather than by individual click: the cost fields particular to large-format are CMY cost per area, Black cost per area, White-ink cost per area, and Ink Type. These rates multiply by the printed area in square metres (calculated from the imposed flat layout) to produce the ink-cost line. Ink coverage tiers (Very Light / Standard / Heavy) then scale that cost based on how dense the artwork is.
The press also carries a sheet-size range (the bed dimensions), a stock caliper limit (rigid substrate thickness on flatbeds), and the general fields shared with every print machine: machine rate, labour rate, run speed.
A worked example
Northgate Press configures the Canon Wide for poster and signage work. The record sits in the digital-press-wide-format family with the Sheet-Fed flatbed layout: labour rate €350/hour, output 2,200 sides/hour, mono click €0.08, CMY click €0.03, white-ink click €0.04, ink coverage tiers Very Light 0.70, Standard 1.0, Heavy 1.1. The press is configured to allow white ink.
A quote for 50 A0 posters (each 1.0 m × 0.84 m flat, 4/0) comes back with:
Ink area — 50 sheets × 0.84 m² ≈ 42 m² of CMY ink at the Standard tier, multiplied by the configured area rate.
Run time — 50 sides ÷ 2,200 sides/hour ≈ 1.4 minutes; on a short run, make-ready and setup dominate.
Substrate — 50 sheets of the chosen rigid board.
The price breakdown shows separate lines for ink, labour, machine time, and substrate. Switching the artwork to a Heavy ink-coverage tier raises the ink line by the tier multiplier (10% in this example). Adding white ink underprint on a coloured board adds a separate white-ink line at the configured white-ink rate.
These values come from the Canon Wide record in the Northgate Press seed (cited in the evidence packet). The same math runs on every large-format sheet-fed quote.
What this affects
Ink-cost line — driven by the printed area in square metres × the area rate × the coverage-tier multiplier. The line is split by colour channel (CMY, mono, white).
Sheet-size range — drives routing; quotes whose imposed flat sheet exceeds the bed dimensions are excluded.
Stock caliper limit — flatbeds carry a maximum board thickness. Quotes that exceed this are excluded.
White-ink usage — when white ink is enabled and the artwork includes a white channel, the white-ink line fires at its own rate.
What this does not affect
Plate cost / plate-making labour — offset-only fields. Large-format sheet-fed presses do not use plates.
Web width / cutoff length — these are roll-fed fields; the sheet-fed flatbed uses sheet-size range instead.
Click rates per impression (sheet-fed digital style) — large-format digital is priced by ink area, not by per-side click. Setting per-impression click rates on a large-format record has no effect.
Finishing operations — cut, contour, mount, laminate are configured under Finishing Machines, not on the press.
Related task articles
Configure a sheet-fed digital press — the digital-specific cost shape (no plates, ink coverage tiers, labour-rate driven) is documented there and applies to large-format sheet-fed too.