Solutions Showcase: Digital Proofing Update

For more than a decade, magazine publishers have strived to adopt soft proofing. “Our customers … have come to recognize the efficiencies and savings [that] monitor proofing can add …,” notes Dr. Carol Werlé, CEO of Dalim Software, Germany. “They want to eliminate hard-copy proofs, which are expensive to make, time-consuming to review, and cumbersome to track and handle in an automated workflow.”

Soft proofing also enables stakeholders in multiple locations to review proofs simultaneously in real-time. And most soft-proofing systems include methods for tracking the proof along with comments and revisions made to the file.

Even initial concerns about soft proofs being unable to render CMYK color dependably have been overcome. Today, many soft-proofing systems proudly display their seal of approval from the authority on magazine quality, certification from Specifications Web Offset Publications (SWOP), including CGS Publishing Technologies’ Oris Soft Proof, Dalim’s Dialogue, Kodak MatchPrint Virtual, and Integrated Color Solutions’ Remote Director.

Despite soft-proofing’s recent advancements, “Most publishers are working in a hybrid proof environment,” notes Deborah Hutcheson, senior marketing manager, digital solutions, Agfa Corp., Ridgefield Park, N.J. “Many … are submitting files via the Web for customers to approve [and] review content, and then submitting a hard-copy proof … for final color OK. Even [printers] doing color-managed soft proofing with their clients are still, in most cases, outputting a hard-copy proof at the end for press guidance.”

“Soft proofing is taking hold at leading-edge publishers who need to reduce cycle time and costs,” says Jeffrey Silverman, president and CEO, Integrated Color Solutions (ICS), New York City. “The weeklies always go first with this type of initiative—for example, Time Inc. …,” he says. “The barriers to adoption in this area are cultural, not technical.”

One recent adopter of ICS’ Remote Director soft-proofing solution is Hachette Filipacchi Media, which reportedly used to produce more than 50,000 hard-copy proofs annually. Today, it relies heavily on soft proofing for editorial pages, reviewed in a dedicated monitor-proofing studio where the lighting mimics pressroom conditions.