Digital proofs beat paper proofs every time for small runs

I keep hearing people in this community say you need a physical proof before printing anything. But I've done about 50 small batch runs of zines and flyers (under 300 copies each) for my local music scene in Portland, and I stopped ordering paper proofs after the first 3 tries. They never caught anything different than what I saw on my calibrated monitor. Plus paying $15 for a single proof sheet adds up fast when you're doing 4 or 5 designs a month. Has anyone else found that paper proofs are just a waste for short runs?

2 comments

2 Comments

tessawebb14d ago

Honestly, what kind of stuff is your monitor showing that actually differs from the proof? I swear half the people who swear by paper proofs just never bothered to calibrate their screen right. I've run a few jobs where the proof came back looking identical to what I had on my end, so I really want to know what you think you're catching that the digital file doesn't already tell you.

nathanking14d ago

Calibrating definitely helps but there's still stuff like metallic inks or spot varnish that just look different on paper. Caught a blotchy foil issue once that looked totally fine on screen but the proof looked like garbage.