Proofs and Proofing

Why good proofing is essential :-


Proof your job properly
When you create artwork for print there is only one thing that really counts and that is how your job prints. When you send your artwork to us then the only thing that really counts is how your artwork works for us. Our system is pretty much "industry standard" and so if your artwork is problematic for us then it is potentially problematic for any other printer and so should really be reworked to correct any deficiencies. Good proofing procedure enables you to uncover such deficiencies before much time and money is wasted.
The fact that your job may not work as expected doesn't imply incompetence on anyone's part - these things are a fact of life when dealing with such a complex system as postscript based printing.

What is proofing?
Proofing is basically a "test run" of your artwork to ensure the integrity of a job before the full costs are incurred of actually producing it to completion. Looking at your artwork on screen using the program you created it in is NOT proofing - it only proves that your artwork looks nice on your monitor. The whole point of proofing is to ensure that what you created in your artwork program is reproduced in the final job exactly as you expect. Even the most expensive, professional artwork and page layout programs have little quirks that can lead to things not reproducing the way you expect when the right (or wrong) combination of circumstances arise.
Doing print jobs without proper proofing is foolishness that will always cost someone money in the end.

Your proofing
Ideally we recommend that you proof the job through some form of postscript output system before sending it to us. Effectively if you can't print the job on your postscript office laser then there is a good chance we will have trouble with it also. A proper check will only be acheived by printing both a composite and colour separations.

Our proofing
When we receive your artwork we will, at your request, produce an online proof for you as a first step in processing your job. In order to generate this proof your job is processed through our system in exactly the same way we would process it for print with one exeption. That is, instead of outputting the colour separated image data for platemaking and printing it is recombined into a jpeg file for you to download and view. This jpeg will be a very true rendering of your artwork in all respects except for visual colour matching which depends on your local system i.e. monitor, etc. It will show overprint, transparency, separation and font errors. When you see this proof you KNOW how your job will print at Caralan.