- [Instructor] You might think of proofing as,
sort of your early warning system.
You want to catch problems early.
And that's why proofing is so crucial.
There are several different kinds of proofs
that you might encounter in your print job.
There's something called scatter proofs.
And these are just proofs of images
or other graphics that are going to be used in the job,
not in position, not in their final pages,
but just all laid up so that you can check the color,
make sure that any requested retouching has been done.
And this is common on high-profile jobs like,
product catalogs.
You want to make sure that,
your proofs match the actual product.
If you're creating an annual report
or you're printing art prints or something really expensive
like coffee table books, scatter proofs,
are nice early in the process to make sure
that all your component pieces are as they should be.
And then there are contract layout proofs.
These are proofs of assembled pages.
And this is so that you can check everything.
You can check the type.
You can make sure that your line breaks are correct.
Make sure that your color is correct.
There's no font substitution.
A lot of this,
you should check long before you send the job in,
but you'd be surprised how you can miss little things
while you're looking at your monitor for 18 hours straight.
But this is the time to catch them.
When you're looking at these layout proofs.
Now the reason this is called a contract proof is that,
you're saying that this is how you want
the job to look when it prints.
And the printer is saying, yes,
this is what it's going to look like when it comes off press.
So, of course you want to examine these proofs very carefully,
before you sign off on them.
And then the blue line and folding dummy proofs,
give you a look at the way the final book is,
going to be assembled.
You can see how the pages look next to each other.
This can be a really good opportunity for you to
check something called crossover art.
If you have artwork that goes from, let's say page two,
to page three.
An image that goes across those two pages,
keep in mind that those pages
don't print next to each other.
You want to make sure on the blue line,
that that crossover is correct.
And I call them blue lines.
But most of the time they come off large format
inkjet printers these days.
Now, they're indicative of the mechanics of the job.
That means that they show you the type,
they show you the crop, the bleed, and so forth.
Don't consider these to be reliable for color.
Those contract proofs, are what you rely on For color.
Be sure to examine your proofs carefully,
a lot hangs on those proofs, when you sign off.
If you miss it now, it could be really expensive later.