Method of setting up and operating an ink printing machine for a print job, wherein the ink printing machine comprises at least three ink printing heads and at least one thermal drier , wherein the print job is carried out on a printing material using water-based black ink and at least two water-based chromatic inks , and wherein a) multiple first test prints of a first test chart comprising at least two or more test fields (23a-c) of varying area coverage are created on the printing material using the water-based black ink, the first test prints are thermally dried at varying temperatures (T i ) and the dried first test prints are analyzed to determine a temperature T for the operation of the drier during the print job, wherein the analysis of the dried first test prints is done by checking at least one fest field (23a-c) of the first test chart to see if the dried printing material and/or the dried water-based black ink are free of visible defects; b) a second test print of a second test chart comprising at least two or more test fields (27a-h) of varying ink volume is created on the printing material using the at least two water-based chromatic inks, the second test print is thermally dried at temperature T, and the dried second test print is analyzed to determine a total ink amount M for the operation of the printing heads during the print job, wherein the analysis of the dried second test chart is done by checking at least one test field (27a-h) of the second test chart to see if the dried water-based chromatic inks reach or stay below a predefined resistance threshold, in particular the SR value; and c) the temperature T and the total amount of ink M are provided to the ink printing machine for the print job and the print job is processed. a) multiple first test prints of a first test chart comprising at least two or more test fields (23a-c) of varying area coverage are created on the printing material using the water-based black ink, the first test prints are thermally dried at varying temperatures (T i ) and the dried first test prints are analyzed to determine a temperature T for the operation of the drier during the print job, wherein the analysis of the dried first test prints is done by checking at least one fest field (23a-c) of the first test chart to see if the dried printing material and/or the dried water-based black ink are free of visible defects; b) a second test print of a second test chart comprising at least two or more test fields (27a-h) of varying ink volume is created on the printing material using the at least two water-based chromatic inks, the second test print is thermally dried at temperature T, and the dried second test print is analyzed to determine a total ink amount M for the operation of the printing heads during the print job, wherein the analysis of the dried second test chart is done by checking at least one test field (27a-h) of the second test chart to see if the dried water-based chromatic inks reach or stay below a predefined resistance threshold, in particular the SR value; and c) the temperature T and the total amount of ink M are provided to the ink printing machine for the print job and the print job is processed. <EOS>