My customer asked me…

“How can we reduce costs with remote soft proofing?”

Soft proofing is on the rise as a valid means of approving print based on content and, increasingly, colour. Globalization, turnaround time and especially cost reduction are some of the reasons why remote soft proofing is becoming necessary.

When it comes to soft proofing solutions, there are many options available. There are generally two types of soft proofs, remote and real-time. A remote soft proof is usually a PDF file that’s uploaded onto an FTP site or emailed and is viewed at the client’s convenience. Compared to a traditional hard proof, remote soft proofing reduces overall approval time and courier costs, but there is still some lag between when the client views the file and when approval or comments are returned. Real-time soft proofing eliminates this delay. A real-time soft proof occurs when the client and the printer are looking at the file at the same time, live in “real” time through a third-party system, such as Remote Director or Acrobat Connect Pro.

Rather than just emailing PDFs to clients, investing time and money into remote or real-time soft proofing systems has many added benefits. This includes adding and tracking notes and comments, imposing files into a virtual book (including virtual pages that can be turned by the customer), viewing separations and simulating paper colour. The soft proof itself can be approved via a legal digital signature and password-protected. Streamlined digital workflows, such as HP Smartstream and Kodak InSite, allow customers to upload, preflight and approve their files along with docket details – and even queue their jobs, without any interaction required from the printer’s end. This type of automation is becoming increasingly popular, but requires remote soft proofing as the means of final approval.

What about trust? Do clients trust a virtual proof on a monitor as much as a traditional hard proof? The biggest hurdle for soft proofing on a monitor is trusting its colour accuracy. While a hard proof is comforting because of its physical presence in a customer’s hand, it really is a myth that monitors are less accurate than the majority of current hard proofing systems. Properly calibrated, quality monitors can display better delta-E values and colour gamut, and it might surprise you that it may not be necessary to invest in an expensive, SWOP-certified solution to do so. As long as you consider the expectations of your customers you can find an affordable solution. For instance, current inkjet proofing devices can range from $1000 up to $100,000. But, if you currently don’t need to invest in an expensive hard proofing device for colour, you probably won’t need to invest in one for soft proofing. Remember, the main selling point of soft proofing to customers is not that the accuracy and quality will be greater than your current system, but that it reduces the costs of proofing dramatically. With proper monitor calibration and good destination profiles (not canned ones) you can guarantee colour accuracy. However, to setup a working soft proofing system between you and your client, you must both trust that the virtual proof is just as good as a hard proof.

Investing in the right monitor is a key component. Customers need to use a quality display with calibration devices and software if they want to assess colour without a hard proof from their own office. Different types and different models will have features that you may or may not need. For instance, LCD monitors use either CCFL backlights or LED backlights. The new generation of LED backlit displays may cost more, but can offer a wider gamut and can last twice as long without significant changes in brightness or colour; 10 years versus three – five. If your customer doesn’t already have an instrument (colorimeter, spectrophotometer) capable of measuring and profiling a monitor, it may be worthwhile to invest in more expensive monitors that include the instruments and calibration software.

The most important considerations for implementing a remote soft proofing solution are the demands and abilities of your customers. Choose a system that has the features that your customers will use. Regarding colour, it’s important to educate your customers in the areas of viewing environments and monitor calibration so you can establish trust. Convincing customers to soft proof for content is easy and you probably already do this, but you need to prove that the value of a colour accurate soft proof is equal to that of a hard proof.

A convenient, inexpensive solution might be to remotely upload soft proofs for your client to view on your customer’s LCD monitor. They are increasingly more colour stable and keeping it in an acceptable colour range might be as simple as teaching your customer how to calibrate his/her current LCD display.

If time is an issue, then a more robust real-time solution might be bought outright. Depending on the frequency of use, you might opt for standalone solutions on a pay-per-use basis. Keep in mind that there are free collaboration tools, such as Adobe ConnectNow or Yuuguu, that might not meet the needs of colour critical work, but allow you to collaborate in real-time over the Internet.

It may be necessary to implement a hybrid system to satisfy different customer needs. Many companies, like HH Print Management, run two soft proofing systems, a simpler PDF-based one for text-heavy publications and a more sophisticated one, like Dalim Dialogue, for colour critical work. Also, the majority of soft proof users don’t go 100% soft right away. Using inexpensive solutions for content and hard proofing devices for colour is very common and a good way to ease customers into the technology.