HOW TO
SOFTWARE | BY ANDREW BAILES-COLLINS
Print Proofing in a Digital Age
T
he purpose of proofing a print job is to create a contract between the printer and the customer. It’s an agreement that the printer will deliver to the customer exactly what is expected. Content, color, and quality are agreed upon and upheld. A proof proves to the customer that the printer’s process can produce the materials that are ordered. The Way We Used to Do It Historically the proofing process has been a manually output, physical representation of the printed piece. There were drawbacks in the time it took to create a proof. As far as production processes go, and by today’s standards, a contract proof was relatively downstream. That means if changes to the content were required,
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Sign Builder Illustrated
May 2021
producing another proof pulls the job back several stages in production. Running a press used to be a craft with learned nuances that couldn’t necessarily be taught. An experienced, talented pressman could be relied upon to match a proof. The color would be accurate and consistent from the first saved impressions to the end of the run. Technology has come a long way with both color systems on presses and plating software. Having ink key settings sent to the press for each plate extremely improves make-ready and the number of impressions to start saving sheets. Advanced press controls with precise quality systems translate into far more efficient results when training new press operators. Matching a proof became more
objective than subjective. As far as proofing time is concerned, the late 1940s saw the introduction of the first overlay system, GAF Ozachrome. In 1965, 3M Color Key debuted, while the 1970s saw 3M technology become Kodak Match Print and the introduction of Dupont Cromalin. Iris inkjet made an impression in 1987 followed by dye sublimation and laser sublimation in the 1990s. Soft proofing emerged in 2003, and in 2005, the first spectrophotometers were integrated with inkjet printers. In 2010, the majority of hard proofs were being produced on an inkjet. How Print Proofing is Done Today The printing industry threw up its collective hands when PDF technology first crept into its world. “There is no signshop.com
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Why we proof print jobs.
