"Just send us a PDF proof"

[ajr]

The customer sends you a pdf and asks for a pdf proof back. What do you do?

Ideally I check the file, whiz it through the RIP make a pdf of the ripped data, and send it back. I use Rampage the problem is the resulting pdf is larger than the original and as its technically a bitmap at this stage the text dont look too good unless I up the resolution and this increases the file size even more. This is too big too email as for using an FTP site or mail big file app this too technical for most people. Usual comments I get is "wont accept my password" "Iclicked on the link and nothing happened" " where has it saved it on my computer" "my other printer can do it" etc etc etc. Therefore I check the pdf, save it with my job number and reduce the size of it to get it through the email, this scares me as its not the ripped data.

I am interested to hear what other people do in this situation nowadys.

AjR

 

[Joe]

We switched from Nexus to Prinergy for this very reason. We can make low res trapped and refined vector PDF's if we need to send them to someone to look at although usually we just have them view them through Kodak Insite.

 

[Stephen Marsh]

AJR, there are a number of "virtual dot proofing" methods on the market, which take RIPed plate data and create a colour composite proof. As mentioned above, one solution comes from Kodak (If you are based in AU/NZ and are interested in Kodak solutions, please send me a private message). Some methods will also descreen and reduce resolution so that the proof is no longer "dot for dot" - but is generated off the RIPed data so that one knows that the proof is from the data going to plate. Halftone proofing may be overkill for many print buyers today, however it is still strong in packaging/flexo. Even if the customer does not wish to go down to the dot level, creating a proof from the actual plate data does have the benefit of being a truly WYSIWYG proof.

A "proof of concept" PDF is linked below, the 1200ppi 150lpi halftone is crap as it does not come from a plate RIP, however it shows the general idea. This "dot proof hack" was created with only Adobe software. This hack can be automated however it would not be productive with impositions and or many pages, however it does show what is possible with a proper solution (which would only use the required bandwidth to view the file at various pan or zoom levels rather than downloading the entire file).


Regards,

Stephen Marsh

 

[PDL]

Here's a web-based proofing solution for posting PDF's as well as ripped files. May be a consideration for you.
Welcome to WebCenter: Web-based project management and pre-production approval
Best of luck.

 

[david]

Afforadable Online Zoomable Proofing

Afforadable Online Zoomable Proofing

We have a couple of nice options for you to consider.

First is our I-Zoom plugin. You can use this with either a Harlequin Rip or in conjunction with our TaskForce Rip and workflow. It can export high resolution zoomable proofs that let your clients view jobs right in their browser with the very finest level of details, and your cost can be as low as just a few hundred dollars to buy the plugin. It can be configured to create either single page zoomable proofs or I-Zoom Page Collections where users can view documents with 1 to hundreds of pages..
Here are some examples:
This is a magazine with 38 pages


Users can also Embed zoomable proofs into their web site - here is an example of an embeded proof:



The second option is our TIFF Pager application which can make online zoomable proofs from the actual one bit TIFF files from any rip:
Here is an example of a zoomable 1 bit TIFF set


More details of TIFF Pager are here
TIFFPager The Everything Tool for all Flavors of TIFF files!

David Lewis
[email protected]