articles/Digital/colouradjust7-page2
by Mike McNamee Published 01/11/2003
Contract proofs
A contract proof is one which is "signed off" as representing the final output, ahead of giving permission to run the whole job. The press operator retains the contract proof and the print run is matched to it. In the case of any dispute, the contract proof provides tangible evidence of what everybody signed up to, at the outset. Contract proofs tend only to be employed on high value, high prestige or large run jobs, mainly because of the cost of making them.
Scatter proofs
If a multi-page document contains a small number of randomly placed images these are sometimes gathered together on a single sheet and proofed on their own while the remainder of the document is proofed "for position only" i.e. to check text and that all the pictures are in the correct place and orientation. FPO's are often desktop laser prints.
Page proofs
Page proofs come in two kinds, "Reader Spreads" which show what the reader will see in the bound document and "Imposition Proofs". If you take the staples out of a magazine then the single sheet of paper (usually 2xA4 printed both sides) shows you what an imposition proof looks like. Thus you will find in Professional ImageMaker that page 15 is on the same proof as page 22. Seeing the imposition proof enables the press operator to allow for an image on one page "robbing" ink from the picture on the same imposed page. The "tracking" as it is called is tweaked to make the best optimisation of the two pages.
Digital proofs
Have you ever noticed that when you are walking about the busy city streets all the motorists are fools and when you get into you car, the pedestrians suddenly all become fools? With apologies to the pure of mind who don't think that way, the same analogy applies to photographers and printers. The photographers claim that the idiot press operator has screwed up their beautiful blue sky which looks nothing like their monitor and the press operator berates the fool photographer for presenting him with an impossibly out of gamut image that he will never ever be able to print accurately. As with drivers and pedestrians the truth lies somewhere in the middle but it is certainly true that high quality ink jet printers have fuelled this frank exchange of views. You have to realise at the outset that your inkjet/printing press/laboratory prints all have their own colour capabilities and that they are inevitably different. An exact match is an impossibility and a close one is only achieved with skill on the part of the provider and acceptance on the part of the client. However with a little goodwill on all sides a satisfactory compromise is usually achievable. If it is not there is a case for either training up the deficient party or parting company.
The problems listed above have caused some magazines and pres-press bureaus to refuse to handle anything other than original transparencies (not even negatives are accepted). Their argument is that the transparency acts as its own proof - all you need do is hold it up to a light box and use the scanner operator's experience to get the correct digital file from it.
The option remains therefore for the creation of an accurate digital proof, which is trusted by the art director, the photographer and the printer. Such is the quality of today's desktop inkjet printers that such a quest is achievable providing the correct precautions are taken
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