What To Know When Hiring A Graphic Designer: Part 6a – Proofing
Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.
What To Know When Hiring A Graphic Designer: Part 6a – Proofing
If you’ve properly given your designer everything they need to get started you wont hear from them again until the proofing phase.
The proofing phase is a chance for you, the client, to see the progress the designer has done up to this point.
When it comes to proofs there is more than one way to view them. The proofing method you use will generally be decided before the project is started.
The first method is a hardcopy proof.
This is the oldest method of proofing. A hardcopy proof is an actual print out of your project. Something you can hold in your hand, see the actual size of and make notations on.
On the other hand a more convenient method of proofing is the soft copy proof or digital proof. Generally sent in the form of a PDF file or JPG, a digital proof can be emailed from the designer directly to you, the client.
There are downsides to digital proofing, however, and I recommend looking at at least one hardcopy proof before you approve the final files.
What are the downsides? For starters, it’s hard to accurately judge the size of graphic elements in a document when you’re viewing a project on your monitor. Fonts or other elements that look appropriately sized on your monitor may look huge when printed or vice versa.
Also, unless specifically calibrated, colors on your monitor will always look slightly different then when they’re printed. The reason for that is because of whats called a color space, or color model.
Without going into all the mathematical details, I’ll explain this by simply saying this: your monitor PROJECTS light. A printed piece of paper REFLECTS light. In other words, colors that look rich and vibrant on your monitor may look a bit more dull when printed.
So if color is of a primary concern make sure to request a COLOR ACCURATE proof.
If your project is a large run job, i.e. thousands of copies are to be printed chances are you’ll be given a color accurate proof before the job is sent to print. Keep in mind though, that a color accurate proof generally wont be sent to you in the first round.
So what does come first? Well the next section will give you a general idea of how the proofing process plays out. Keep in mind though, that every designer and every firm is a bit different and their method may be a bit different.
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