Color proofing has an interesting history. Before the 1970s, on-press proofing was the norm. Customers would come to the printing plant and either stand press side or relax in a conference room waiting to approve that the press sheet represented their expectations. Very time-consuming and expensive, although an “earned boondoggle” to some. To help replace this, off-press overlay color proofing systems exposed with the separation films were initially developed in the late 1940s, but really took off in the late 1960s with the introduction of 3M Color Key. Laminated off-press color proofing took hold in the mid 1970s with the introduction of products by 3M, Dupont, Kodak, and others. While they were not as accurate as on press proofing, for “some” less critical color applications they would suffice. After all, clients didn’t need to come to the printing plant and the proofs could be sent by mail or courier, saving time and costs.

By the 1980s, digital design and prepress became the norm, and the concept of “soft proofing” or reviewing color and making approvals on a monitor started to take hold. While these were good for content approval, color approval was less so. But ultimately, it was still faster and less costly to email a PDF file directly to a client, eliminating the creation and mailing of a hard copy a proof, without the dark hole window of transport. While to many this became the method of choice, it had and has its problems. The introduction of ICC color management and profile support in computer operating systems, creative applications, and prepress systems helped, however it still assumed that all of the players in the design and production supply chain not only had compliant systems, but more importantly that they were set up properly. In essence, does it really look the same on my monitor as it does on yours, and, most importantly, the press? We think that anytime you’re passing PDFs around, you can say you’re soft proofing, but there are hidden if not obvious problems. What monitors does everybody have? Do they calibrate them? When do they calibrate them? Do they pass ISO certification? What profiles are they using? Have they specified and controlled the lighting? Is there a press curve that needs to be applied to the file, etc.?

This is all very critical if you are trying to ensure and maintain brand identity in packaging or marketing. Inkjet proofing provides some of that process control, but now we were back to making and sending hard copy proofs, or relying on each of the stakeholders to maintain and calibrate their local proofing systems and, as important, the viewing environment.