Online Proofing - Make Mine Soft-Serve
September 2005
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Soft proofing technology can do the job, but its success depends largely on good discipline and the printer-client relationship.
"SOFT" PROOFING GOES by several names—monitor, virtual, online—and comes in an array of "flavors." No matter what you call it, however, the ultimate goal is as straightforward as it is universal: shrink production cycles, eliminate rework, reduce costs, and move everything faster.
Unlike traditional hardcopy proofing, in which handling and transmission of the physical proof increases both cycle time and the potential for error, soft proofing depends on workflows in which color-accurate proofs can be viewed on calibrated computer monitors under controlled lighting conditions.
Reducing time to market is critical in package design, where multiple individuals need to look at a package for reasons that range from compliance with FDA labeling requirements to shelf aesthetics to language. When every day not on the shelf means lost sales, fast online capabilities prove their worth.
Monitor proofing 101
Among the benefits of incorporating soft proofing into production workflows, the most obvious is being able to shrink the proofing stage itself by days, even weeks. Since there's no delay in printing out a proof and shipping it to the client, the instant that a job has been produced, it can be made available for approval.
"People are moving from 'I have to see it, feel it, touch it, and scratch it' to 'I just don't have time to do it anymore'," says Kent St. Vrain, vice president, sales and marketing for Paxonix, Inc., a MeadWestvaco company offering brand and packaging management software.
Sending PDFs as e-mail attachments is a rudimentary form of monitor proofing, and using PDFs for content approval is nothing new. However, newer tools like Integrated Color Solutions' (ICS) Remote Director, DALiM Software's Dialogue, and Kodak Polychrome Graphic's Matchprint Virtual Proof now enable multiple individuals to review and annotate a single file—a process known as collaborative soft proofing.
Soft proofing solutions on the market may permit viewing for color and content as well as editing and annotating; predict how an image will print on a designated stock; and enable the viewing of spot colors, comparison of proofs, and collaboration. Whether or not the monitor proof itself has the legal standing of a traditional hardcopy "contract proof" hinges on the requirements of the job.
Soft proofing for package printing
Whether or not soft proofing is feasible for packaging workflows "really depends upon the application and also on the substrate—whether bag or board or foil—that you need to replicate and, in the online realm, to add those profiles," says St. Vrain. For example, "A lot of our customers want to do new graphics for existing substrates, in which case what we're really doing is taking the same material and redesigning. And there are other applications, as in pharmaceuticals—with the FDA regulations and documentation requirements, etc.—where they are simply changing some text or graphic on the existing label to meet a new requirement. In those instances, you might get all the way to the contract proof."
"SOFT" PROOFING GOES by several names—monitor, virtual, online—and comes in an array of "flavors." No matter what you call it, however, the ultimate goal is as straightforward as it is universal: shrink production cycles, eliminate rework, reduce costs, and move everything faster.
Unlike traditional hardcopy proofing, in which handling and transmission of the physical proof increases both cycle time and the potential for error, soft proofing depends on workflows in which color-accurate proofs can be viewed on calibrated computer monitors under controlled lighting conditions.
Reducing time to market is critical in package design, where multiple individuals need to look at a package for reasons that range from compliance with FDA labeling requirements to shelf aesthetics to language. When every day not on the shelf means lost sales, fast online capabilities prove their worth.
Monitor proofing 101
Among the benefits of incorporating soft proofing into production workflows, the most obvious is being able to shrink the proofing stage itself by days, even weeks. Since there's no delay in printing out a proof and shipping it to the client, the instant that a job has been produced, it can be made available for approval.
"People are moving from 'I have to see it, feel it, touch it, and scratch it' to 'I just don't have time to do it anymore'," says Kent St. Vrain, vice president, sales and marketing for Paxonix, Inc., a MeadWestvaco company offering brand and packaging management software.
Sending PDFs as e-mail attachments is a rudimentary form of monitor proofing, and using PDFs for content approval is nothing new. However, newer tools like Integrated Color Solutions' (ICS) Remote Director, DALiM Software's Dialogue, and Kodak Polychrome Graphic's Matchprint Virtual Proof now enable multiple individuals to review and annotate a single file—a process known as collaborative soft proofing.
Soft proofing solutions on the market may permit viewing for color and content as well as editing and annotating; predict how an image will print on a designated stock; and enable the viewing of spot colors, comparison of proofs, and collaboration. Whether or not the monitor proof itself has the legal standing of a traditional hardcopy "contract proof" hinges on the requirements of the job.
Soft proofing for package printing
Whether or not soft proofing is feasible for packaging workflows "really depends upon the application and also on the substrate—whether bag or board or foil—that you need to replicate and, in the online realm, to add those profiles," says St. Vrain. For example, "A lot of our customers want to do new graphics for existing substrates, in which case what we're really doing is taking the same material and redesigning. And there are other applications, as in pharmaceuticals—with the FDA regulations and documentation requirements, etc.—where they are simply changing some text or graphic on the existing label to meet a new requirement. In those instances, you might get all the way to the contract proof."
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