Proofer, Proofer, Who’s Got a Proofer?

Here is a a Blog posting I wrote for the Kodak “Grow Your Biz” blog. I appreciate being asked to guest blog!

Not so long ago, while working at a small mom and pop shop called Banta, now RR Donnelley, we received a 1500 page catalog with a set of proofs. This business-to-business catalog was nothing special, some product shots, some body copy explaining the items, pricing and tables. You know the usual catalog fare. The customer expressed to us the “critical” nature of their color needs and we told them that we would take good care of their files. They asked for contract grade proofs on their cover, chapter openers and random pages throughout the catalog.

So we generated our highest quality Fuji Final Proofs for this customer. After receiving the proofs, we received an irate phone call from them saying we didn’t do what they asked. They complained that the color on our proofs was way off!!!? We scratched our heads in disbelief, and looked back at the last time the proofer was calibrated. Things seemed in check, as our proofer was calibrated to SWOP recommendations. Investigating further into the process with the customer, we found out that we hadn’t matched their proofs. We tried digging into the job jacket to get a sample of their proofs, thinking for a moment they were Kodak Approvals or some other high quality dot generated contract proofs. Well…not even close. Their proofs were all generated with an inexpensive, store purchased, desktop ink jet printer.

They said, “We like the reds and blues better on our proofs, please match out proofs!”

Needless to say, any customer who asks us to match proofs generated from a cheap desktop printer is in no mood or mindset to talk CMYK gamut and ink sets. At the end of the day, a few new calibrations curves for our plates seemed to satisfy the customer somewhat, but they were not truly 100% happy.

Helping customers understand expectations with regards to proofing is a hard task in this day and age of commodity-based printing. Clients come and go to the printer with the best pricing and with the advent of desk top publishing, almost any Tom, Dick or Harry can put together a catalog, or so says their boss!

It’s so important to have proper UPFRONT communication with your customer to help alleviate these types of situations. Many times we say we don’t have time to educate our customers, but we certainly found time to build new calibration curves and reset the customer’s expectations. This process would have been so much easier if we were able to do this before the fact.