A method of printing a pixel defined by C1, M1, Y1, K1 color values having a sum that is not less than a maximum allowed paper coverage max_cov, including obtaining an adjusted cyan color value Cadj that depends on C1 and K1, an adjusted magenta color value Madj that depends on M1 and K1, and an adjusted yellow color value Yadj that respectively depends on Y1 and K1; assigning a maximum and a minimum of Cadj, Madj, Yadj to max_color and min_color, respectively;selecting a black color value K that is not greater than a minimum of min_color and (Cadj+Madj+Yadj-max_cov+K1)/2; adding K1 to K to obtain a black output color value Kout; determining output non-black primary color values Cout, Mout, Yout and a secondary value S_color such that their sum is equal to max_cov; and half-toning Kout, Cout, Mout, Yout, and S_color.