Instant gratification

Jul 1, 2005 12:00 AM, By Julie Shaffer

Soft proofing for the small printer

American Quick Printer

What does the term "soft proofing" mean to you? At the most rudimentary level, soft proofing simply refers to the review of a potential print project on a computer monitor instead of on a physical substrate. The concept of looking at projects on screen is nothing new; many of us have been exchanging Portable Document Format (PDF) files for review of page content for some time. A PDF file is so much more colorful and convenient for remote page review than what it replaced—a proof via fax machine!

Soft proofing has been a newsworthy topic ever since Integrated Color Solutions’ (ICS) (New York) Remote Proof 2.0 became the first monitor-based proofing system to achieve SWOP (Specifications for Web Offset Publications) certification in early 2003—an achievement that was followed almost immediately by competitor Kodak Polychrome Graphics (KPG) (Norwalk, CT) and its Matchprint Virtual monitor proofing system. The SWOP certification announcements made a big splash because they validated a notion that some still don’t quite believe. Namely, that a monitor-based, soft proof can be used to predict the final color of a printed piece and can be a contract proof complete with a client’s legal, digital sign-off. These early systems were first adopted by high-end advertising agencies and large print conglomerates. They were perceived as expensive and difficult to set up and maintain—well out of the realm of possibility for the smaller commercial printer.

Why do it?
Today, there are many soft proofing options on the market, and many of them are easy and inexpensive to jump into—some even offer contract color proofing. Why would you want to offer soft proofing to your clients? One benefit is obvious: to reduce cycle time between proofing iterations and reap all the savings associated with that. Remove just one round of physical proofs sent via overnight courier from the process and you remove one to three days from each round of proofs, not to mention the cost of the courier and the proofing consumables. Several rounds of soft proofs can be done in the same time frame. Let’s face it, we live in a world of instant gratification, and remote soft proofing offers something pretty darned close to that.

Before we review some of the players offering soft proofing options, let’s discuss a few more concepts associated with monitor-based proofing. We’ve already defined content soft proofing as the ability to inspect digital files via a monitor for content: object placement, text, size or just about everything except an assured-accurate representation of color.

Content, color and comments Representative color is what contract soft proofing systems offer. Beyond simply viewing content and/or color, most soft proofing systems generally enable the viewer to provide some form of electronic comment. This capability mirrors that of the traditional physical proof as a communication tool used to review, mark up and ultimately approve the proof as a go-ahead to put the job on press.

Soft proofing can be part of a product dedicated solely to proofing, either for content or color (as the ICS and MVP systems are). Increasingly, however, soft proofing is a component of other production systems, including proofing RIPs, prepress workflow systems, asset management systems or even digital storefronts. Soft proofing systems often are accessible to remote users via the Internet, but they also can be used within workgroups to serve in-house users via a local area network (LAN).

Many systems offer annotation tools that can include navigation and zoom tools, digital pens or other drawing tools, virtual sticky notes for comments, densitometer-like color readers, overprint and separation preview modes, and even halftone dot structure. Some allow multiple people to review a proof simultaneously, and some have live chat interfaces. Most allow for proofing of all the common image file formats (TIFF, JPEG, EPS) along with complete page formats like PDF.

What about color?
Color management, and all that goes along with it, is an integral component of the contract soft proofing systems. (See "Soft proofing: Seeing is believing," Sept. 2004.) While newer application service provider (ASP) models can handle some of the required components of such systems, a color-managed environment generally includes controlled viewing conditions, color-accurate display, calibration hardware and software, and profile creation and management tools for the end user as well as the hosting company. For any color-critical workflow, color management is a must.

Let’s consider the lowest common denominator for monitor preview: the graphic design applications themselves. While it has been more than frowned upon to allow a page layout document to serve as a proof of itself, Adobe (San Jose, CA) continues to make it easier for users to establish matching color environments for its Creative Suite products. Adobe CS2 lets users create a single color workspace setting and apply it globally to all products in the suite (including InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop and Acrobat 7) through the new Bridge application.

Streamlining digital data transfer
Nothing is used more widely than the PDF file as a format for digital file exchange, especially for page content review. Commenting features have been a part of Acrobat for many years, but access to commenting tools was only available within the full application, not Reader. All that has changed. Today, Acrobat 7 Professional users can create PDF files that users of the free Adobe Reader 7 can annotate. This opens a PDF-based review process to a much wider audience. Acrobat Pro users can offer PDF files for review via automated e-mail delivery or through a Web server-based system. Reviewers can mark up the PDF file and return comments via e-mail or upload comments directly to the server. All comments for an individual PDF document, even when they’ve come from different sources, can be annotated to the individual PDF file.

Sending individual PDF files via e-mail, while easy to do, is not as easy to manage as a central repository of files and comments. On the flip side, building your own Web server to host a collaborative system can be a ponderous undertaking. To reap the benefits of Web-based soft proofing and commenting, consider one of the hosted (ASP) systems that, for a monthly fee, will manage the technical details of Web-based soft proofing for you.

More than mere soft proofing
If it were possible for technology as recent as Web-based proofing to have one, the granddaddy of all such systems would have to be KPG’s RealTimeProof. Rob Pipe, KPG’s worldwide director of virtual proofing, claims there are more than 20,000 RealTimeProof users, a number that continues to grow. There is a whole suite of offerings under the RealTimeProof banner, all sharing some common features, including the proprietary "Pixels-on-Demand" technology that allows rapid streaming of high-resolution files from a server to a client via the Web. While the technology powers many other soft proofing solutions (via an OEM relationship), printers can sign up as an ASP user directly at www.RealTimeProof.com.

RealTimeProof is more than a mere soft proofing system, explains Pipe. "[It provides] an entire workflow, including e-mail notification, file routing and approvals tracking. It really manages the whole process." In addition to the file streaming technology, RealTimeProof contains database-driven asset management and file transfer components and handles a broad range of file types, including PDF, Scitex CT/LW, DCS I, DCS II, TIFF, TIFF/IT, PS, EPS and JPEG.

KPG’s Matchprint Virtual also is available as an ASP offering, starting at $500 per month. This removes much of the overhead required to implement a contract soft proofing system. Users of the RealTimeProof ASP model can brand the site as their own, a technique that Pipe believes can work wonders for the image of smaller printers. "This type of branding can make a company look bigger on the Web than it might actually be," he says.

An ASP powerhouse
Printable Technologies Inc. (Solana Beach, CA), a provider of numerous ASP-style services for the print community, hosts one of the few print-specific e-commerce sites that survived the dotcom bust. Printable’s Print Fusion product provides digital storefronts to printers who do not have the time or resources to build their own.

Print Fusion enables printers to offer their clients variable, Web-based creation of repeat-order products, such as stationery or business cards. This is a unique form of soft proofing, in that the client is building and viewing documents for production right within a Web browser. Printable also offers PrintProof, a dedicated soft-proofing product powered by RealTimeProof. See www.printable.com.

Pay as you go
With a five-year history, another old timer in the realm of online proofing is Proof-it-Online (Naples, FL). One of the most economical of ASP-style services, it enables a company to begin offering Web-based proofing and approval for as little as $45 a month. Proof-it-Online clients pay per "approval session," defined as "any group of 1-10 documents or pages that you post for a client to review and approve." The base price includes 25 approval sessions. For printers who work with brokers, Proof-it-Online offers a "TeamTrack" option that lets the user post proofs online for intermediaries (brokers, sales representatives, etc.) who then route the proofs on to their clients for review and approval. This adds about $24 per month to the service.

Proof-it-Online works like this: The printer uploads a PDF, GIF or JPEG "proof" to the Web, automatically generating an e-mail notice for the customer indicating a project is ready for review. The client can be directed to log in through the printer’s own Web site or directly at www.proofitonline.com. Once online, the customer can add comments and markups to the proof, view other comments and ultimately approve the project.

Industrial strength soft proofing
Companies traditionally known for physical proofing devices or proofing RIPs increasingly are offering soft proofing solutions. Onyx Graphics (Salt Lake City), for example, now offers a new workflow tool, Onyx RIPeXtend. When used with the Onyx In-House Proofing Workflow option, print projects can be submitted to the print shop via a Web interface. Once the job is RIPped, the Onyx RIPeXtend module generates a soft-proof preview of the job that can be delivered back to the client via e-mail or FTP. At the same time, it places the RIPped high-resolution file into the print queue. Once the "go ahead" is received from the client, the job is ready to print immediately.

CGS (Minneapolis) has added soft proofing to the ORIS Color Tuner 5.1 product with its new ORIS Soft Proof. This chargeable option uses hot folders to generate a color-accurate PDF/X-3 file for viewing while the high-resolution ORIS proof is made. Users view the PDF/X-3 file in Adobe Acrobat and, if they have a special ORIS plug-in installed, the proof and the user’s color management settings will be verified. Markup can be done using the standard Acrobat annotation tools.

Cyan eProof, offered by cyan soft ltd. (Limassol, Cyprus), is best classified as a remote soft and hard proofing solution. Using "RapidImageView Image Streaming Technology," the company claims users can "view gigabytes of high-resolution files in seconds over a dial-up connection" as well as deliver those files to a remote location for hard proofing. A unique feature of this service is that it allows clients, even multiple clients at the same time, to perform text edits to PDF, PostScript, InDesign, Illustrator or Microsoft Word documents served up through the Web interface. Cyan eProof is not a hosted service, but rather a product for purchase and integration within a print company’s own Web site. See www.cyansoftware.com.

Soft proof as QA tool
An ever-growing list of prepress RIPs and workflow systems offer monitor-based proofing both in-house and online. In-house soft proofing gives prepress production operators a chance to preview jobs onscreen before they are committed to the final film or plate—recasting monitor proofing as a quality control device.

While prepress workflow solutions have a reputation for being costly (and some of them certainly are), RIPit Computer Corp.’s (Citrus Heights, CA) OpenRIP and EFI’s OneFlow are two moderately priced solutions that both offer this type of soft proofing. Both systems let the operator view RIPped files for traps, overprints, bleeds, screen angles and even individual dots. For Harlequin RIP owners, Hamillroad Software (Diep River, South Africa and Cambridge, England) developed FirstPROOF Plus, a remote LAN-based Post-RIP soft proofing system that offers similar functionality. See www.hamillroad.com.

Production integration
Users of higher-priced systems, like Creo (Vancouver, BC, Canada) Prinergy, can purchase the Creo Synapse Insite option, a full-fledged Web interface to the Prinergy production workflow. InSite has been on the market for more than two years and has been considered a content-only soft proofing system, allowing remote users to review and approve production pages resident on the Prinergy server. In April, the latest version of the product, InSite Color, joined the ranks of contract soft proofing by achieving SWOP certification.

All SWOP-certified soft proofing systems include more than just the software application. Each certification is a specific combination of software, viewing condition, display and color calibration device. For InSite Color, those devices are the Eizo CG21 LCD Monitor, the GretagMacbeth Eye-One Pro calibrator and a GTI digitally-dimmed viewing booth with T8 tubes (SOFV-1ex).

Making it easy for the customer
DiALOGUE, DALiM Software’s (Kehl, Germany) standalone online soft proofing solution, also achieved SWOP certification in April. DiALOGUE version 3 is certified for use with the GTI SOFV-1ex viewing booth and the GretagMacbeth EyeOne Pro spectrophotometer, viewed on a 23- or 30-inch Apple Cinema display, or a 20-inch iMac.

According to Gee Ranasinha, DALiM Software’s director of marketing, DiALOGUE is distinguished from the other soft proofing systems in that it is the only JDF-enabled solution, it runs under Mac OSX and it requires nothing more than a Web browser on the client side. It also doesn't operate "click charges" or monthly subscription fees.

"The only way to get greater client acceptance is to eliminate proprietary software on the client end," Ranasinha says, adding, "End users should never have to worry about whether they have the latest version of the application, or whether it runs on their particular OS or is incompatible with another application on their system." A browser-only client, he feels, is the best way to make sure users of any knowledge level will be comfortable with a soft-proofing system.

Is it for you?
Let’s wrap up with our initial question: Are contract-quality systems practical for the smaller print shop? Absolutely, affirms John Sweeney, vice president of sales and marketing for ICS. "ICS Remote Director, because it runs on standard computer hardware that often is already in place, can be implemented easily and without any long-term commitment," he explains. "The software is free, as is the client ‘reader’ tool. Customers can get started by purchasing a minimum 100 proofs for $1,000."

Can you afford soft proofing? Add up the cost of your current proofing method in terms of time spent, shipping and material costs. Now consider the savings that you will reap when reducing approval times and removing some of the physical proofs you now make. It’s very likely that some form of soft proofing will only improve your relationship with your clients and reduce proof-to-approval times, not to mention costs. Perhaps a better question is, can you afford not to provide soft proofing to your clients?

Julie Shaffer is the director of PIA/GATF's Center for Imaging Excellence. Contact her at jshaffer@piagatf.org.