Print Soft Proofs: Check What the Paper Changes

An illustrator prepares a botanical print for a small shop. On screen, the pale cream around the leaves looks almost white, and two dark greens are easy to tell apart. The first print comes back warmer. The cream has nearly merged with the paper, and the darkest leaves look like one shape. The file still looks fine on the monitor. The question is whether the design works on the stock the shop has chosen.

A soft proof is a preview on screen of how an image may look under a particular output condition. It gives you a chance to check decisions before ordering a print run. For this illustrator, the useful question is whether the border and the two greens still do their jobs. Trying to make the preview look identical to the original would miss the point of the comparison.

Choose the print condition before judging the image

Adobe’s Photoshop proofing guide explains how a custom proof uses an output profile to simulate a target device. The guide also describes options to simulate the paper colour and the black the output can produce, where the profile supports those options. That is why a soft proof can change more than the most saturated colours. The apparent white and the darkest tones can change together.

Ask your printer which profile and proof settings apply to your chosen process and stock. A profile supplied for one paper should not be assumed to describe another. Print provider WhiteWall’s soft-proofing instructions, for example, describe selecting a profile and using a gamut warning to see where a destination may have difficulty reproducing colours. Follow the guidance for your own supplier. A profile used for previewing also does not, by itself, tell you how the supplier wants the final file prepared or tagged.

Look at the details that carry the design

Start with a particular job rather than a general colour comparison. A print intended to show the shape of a leaf needs the dark veins to remain distinct. A stationery set with a delicate border needs enough separation between the border and the surrounding paper. Write down two or three such features before toggling the preview. You will be able to explain why a change matters instead of simply saying that one version looks duller.

• Look at pale areas against the intended paper. If a tinted border becomes hard to distinguish, check whether that boundary is part of the design or simply a soft transition you are happy to lose.
• Inspect dark areas at the intended print size. Check whether neighbouring shapes still read separately. An enlarged crop can help locate the issue, but it does not tell you what a buyer will see from a normal viewing distance.
• Use a gamut warning to find places worth inspecting. A warning identifies a limit of the simulated output. Decide whether the flagged area contains an important brand colour or a background detail that can shift without changing the work.

Imagine the leaf veins stay visible but the border disappears. Increasing saturation across the whole piece would change much more than the area that needs attention. Try a print-specific adjustment to the border, or choose to let it blend into the paper. If the original image also serves as a web listing, keep it intact and save the print adjustment separately. The two versions have different destinations.

Use the preview to ask for a better physical proof

A monitor preview still depends on the display, its calibration and the light around it. Paper is seen in reflected light, and a screen cannot reproduce its feel or surface finish. If a key colour or shadow detail matters to the order, ask the printer what kind of physical proof is available and how closely it represents the intended production process and stock.

Give the printer a specific question. For example: ‘In the proof, can I still see the thin border without magnification, and do these two leaves read as separate shapes?’ Look at the print at the size and under the kind of lighting in which customers will use it. If the paper texture or finish is a selling point, judge that on an actual sample rather than inferring it from a screen.

Keep colour appearance separate from checks on how the file was built. A convincing soft proof does not replace inspecting the PDF or asking the printer about ink specifications. The MaryChuks guide to checking the black ink behind small type covers one of those separate checks. A set of small captions could look acceptable in the soft proof while still needing a closer look at how they will be printed.

Record which version you approved

Save a short note with the approved file: the printer, the stock, the profile used for the preview and what you checked on the physical proof, if you ordered one. If a repeat order changes the paper, reopen the decision rather than assuming the previous approval travels with the artwork. The point of the soft proof is to make that judgement early enough to change the design or the paper before paying for the full run.

For a series of prints, check one image with the palest tones and another with the deepest shadows. Approving the brightest image in a collection tells you little about whether its quieter companion will hold together on the same paper. Keep the approved samples for the next run.

Sources

• Adobe, Proofing colours in Photoshop: output profiles and proof simulation settings.
• WhiteWall, How does soft proofing work?: a print provider’s instructions for previewing an output profile.