Showerthought: I thought digital mockups would kill the need for physical proofs.

When I first started at a print shop in 2018, I was sure sending PDFs was enough. Then we had a big job for a local museum's event banners, and the colors looked totally different on their screen versus our calibrated one. We wasted a whole day and a lot of material before the boss made us do a physical proof on the actual banner vinyl. Seeing it in real light under the shop fluorescents showed a green tint we all missed. Does anyone else still run a physical proof for critical color jobs, or do you trust your soft proofing setup completely?

2 comments

2 Comments

logansullivan13d ago

Always run a physical proof. Screens lie.

jennifer_fisher13d ago

Totally agree with that. Read a case study once where a designer's whole print run was ruined because the blues on screen looked way more vibrant than the actual ink could produce. The physical proof showed it was actually a dull gray.