Before Cool Colour Printing can print any job it must first be approved or “proofed” by the customer. This stage is very important to ensure that the product is printed as you expect. This guide briefly explains the main checks that you should make when proofing a printed product. It is important to check all elements of the proof as Cool Colour Printing cannot be held responsible for errors that are present in an approved proof, for example spelling mistakes.
Key Areas
- Spelling
- Details
- Size
- Pictures and Logos
1 Spelling
Very often a designer will retype information supplied when creating a proof. For this reason all elements on the card must be checked for spelling, this includes phone numbers and email addresses.
2 Details
Is all the information that your require on the product? For example: with a business card does this have all of the information needed, i.e email, direct line and fax number? With a letterhead does it need the company number, VAT number and registered address?
3 Size
Is everything on the card going to print the size that you expect? A common mistake is to view a business card on the screen at 200% zoom; hence text is displayed much larger than the final product. It is worth viewing the proof at the final printed size to check that the text is all legible and not too small to read easily.
4 Pictures and Logos
If you have supplied us with your own picture or logo it is worth checking that it will print clearly. As a typical monitor/screen displays at 72dpi (dots per inch) and commercial print is produced at 300dpi you will have to zoom in to 400% to check logo’s and pictures. If at this level the logo appears distorted you might want to consider supplying a higher resolution logo.
Finally
If you are happy with your proof please send us an email or letter to confirm that you approve the proof to print. We are unable to book in a job to print until we have this confirmation from you.