Remote Proofing Gaining Ground

"Hurry up with that package! The messenger is here to pick it up!" Sound familiar? Conjure up images of production managers trying to stuff page proofs into stiff envelopes that never seem to be large enough? The battle cry, "FedEx is here," rates at about a six on a production manager's stress meter. But soon, that stress may be quelled as hard-copy proofs are slowly phased out of our workflow—in all cases except ad proofs, that is, which may hang around for at least the next generation. A handful of companies are now offering high-res proofing products for both soft (monitor) and hard (substrate-based) proofing, accessible from either your prepress supplier, your printer or through an ASP (Application Service Provider). The forerunners in this category are RealTimeImage (RTI), www.realtimeimage.com, with its RealTime-Proof, and CreoScitex, www.creoscitex.com, which purchased InSite (formerly known as ViewIT) from Carmel Graphics last year. Both solutions offer collaborative viewing capabilities so production managers, art directors and prepress providers—anyone involved in the project—to simultaneously view, annotate, pan, zoom, measure and approve images online. Whether tackling high-res soft or hard remote proofs, calibration and color management are perhaps the most critical elements of the process. Unfortunately, they represent stumbling blocks for many—but not all—print producers.Blow-by-blow coverageIn order to offer up-to-the-minute coverage of last year's Olympic Games in Sydney, Sports Illustrated (SI) turned to RealTimeProof. Australia-based editors and photographers were able to successfully collaborate with the magazine's design and production staff back in New York City. Working as a team and supported by this promising digital proofing tool, the magazine was able to continually meet its Monday-night printer deadline.Compressed images and text were transmitted to Sydney via SI's internal communication system, a switch 256 circuit line. Images were sorted and selected using a software tool that RTI created for the client. Text fitting, design and page layout were performed as usual by SI's New York staff. Print-ready DCS 2.0 files were transmitted to the on-location team for final approval. And in some cases, the extra quality control step ensured that errors, like misplaced photo credits, didn't make it to print. RTI's Pixels-on-Demand technology facilitates on-demand image streaming, allowing the viewer to see only the resolution detail that's needed. It saves a great deal of time in downloading particularly high-res files when all the recipient needs to confirm is that a mispelled word has been corrected. High-res production files in any standard format (TIFF/IT-P1, TIFF, JPEG, EPS, BMP, PostScript, DCS 1.0/2.0, CT/LW, PICT and PDF) can be viewed in seconds, and the file formats remain native. The solution does not require that an image be converted for viewing and then converted back, post-approval. The data is not reinterpreted or altered in any way.Saatchi's storySpeed and convenience is what led New York's Saatchi & Saatchi to RealTimeProof last year. The agency craved a replacement for iterative hard proofs required in the developmental stages of ad creation. According to Eve Asbury, senior vice president/director of print and digital production, catching up with creative and art directors who need to sign off on proofs presents a bit of a challenge, since they're not often in the office. Asbury credits RealTimeProof as being "an enormous time saver."Give credit when it's dueYet another print buyer who espouses soft-proof time savings is Mike Reinhardt, production manager, Credit Union Times, a weekly West Palm Beach, FL tabloid. The magazine prints at Schumann Printers in Fall River, WI. Since its weekly production cycle leaves little time for proofing, the magazine's staff had long ago become accustomed to doing without proofs and subsequently, without the peace of mind that content would re-produce well. The publication sends Quark files with low-res images over a 28K modem to Schumann. They wouldn't see those files, proofs of the files or press sheets after that. The next time they'd see the content, it would be in print-and-bound form.Credit Union Times recently installed an ISDN line, so file transmission to Schumann is greatly improved, and the publication is now able to take advantage of the printer's RTI tool, RealTimeProof Classic. Reinhardt describes the new workflow: About 75 images are scanned in-house at the publication each week. The scans are overnighted on ZIP disks or uploaded to Schumann's FTP site. Before he leaves his office on Wednesday evening, Reinhardt transmits the 40 to 60 page files to Schumann. By Thursday morning, he can open his Web browser and view the entire publication in high-res. He can instantaneously open a 60MB file and peruse through it page by page. Reinhardt often uses the annotation tools to request changes before noon on Thursday; 24 hours later, the publication is printed, bound and shipped.Is soft proofing for you?Although remote hard-proofing is readily available, these print producers are content with the "soft" alternative for now, in hopes that both practices will soon be supported by more sophisticated technologies and quality-control measures. All admit that the technologies are still a bit young and underdeveloped, but expect them to evolve quickly.Reinhardt, for example, isn't particularly concerned that he doesn't have a top-of-the-line monitor. He confesses that he doesn't take a lot of time calibrating, either. He's happy with the color he sees on screen, and gets an acceptable match to what's coming off the press.Satisfaction guaranteedSports Illustrated ceased sending final edit proofs to its printers years ago, opting to depend on good prepress, standard densities and educated in-line compromise decisions. SI's associate director of imaging, Geoff Michaud, notes that he's hopeful for the day when someone working color on press can pull up an imposition on a near-press monitor and view any given page for color accuracy. "Our color would only get better," Michaud remarks. SI occasionally sends Fuji PictroProofs to the printer for color-critical edit features. Michaud hopes that remote soft-proofing will eventually eliminate the need for those, as well. He does, however, express some concerns: "How do you sign off on a monitor proof?" Michaud adds that CRT monitor output varies from day to day, and while that's not necessarily the case with LCD monitors, there are other contributing factors affecting viewing conditions, like ambient light. How can you be assured that your viewing conditions reasonably match those of your designer, your prepress vendor, the guy trying to get the press up to color? There are no such guarantees. Be forewarned that if you're going to begin to rely on remote or soft proofing solutions, and you want the most accurate color match possible, you will need to spend plenty of time calibrating your equipment to match that of your suppliers'. And you'll need to logically budget and schedule periodic equipment maintenance and recalibration. Walk before you runLike any emerging technology, you should take it for a walk on a leash before you allow it to run free. Consider taking a remote or soft proofing tool around the block; you may find that it becomes your best production friend. -Kathy ReillyKathy Reilly (kathyppa@ix.netcom.com) is president of Print Production Advisory, a Milwaukee-based consultancy. She has been actively engaged in magazine production for more than 28 years.

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Remote Proofing Gaining Ground

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