By Paul Sherfield, The Missing Horse Consultancy Ltd and Clare Taylor

This paper will examine the uses of soft proofing within approval cycles and then look into the perceived and actual environmental advantages.

What is soft proofing? Simply it is approving an image, page or complete jobs 'on screen', rather than producing a proof on paper.

It can replace the need for paper proofs in all stages of the approval cycle:

• Initial image selection and approval
• Design content approval
• Contract colour proof approval
• Content revision approval
• Press side contract colour for press passing

The technology and systems are now available and reliable to use soft proofing in all areas.

Most graphic arts organisations are using PDFs, in some form, for content proofs, and to speed up revision cycles. By content, this means a proof that is not accurate for colour.

In order for a soft proof to be colour accurate a number of areas need to be addressed.

• The file must be colour managed correctly: i.e. images must have an ICC colour profile, PDFs should be a PDF X of some form and therefore have an output intent that specifies their colour space, ICC profile and/or printing condition.
• The software used to display these images and pages must be ICC colour management aware; i.e. Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Acrobat Pro etc.
• The computer monitors used must be capable of displaying the colour gamut of the images and pages. This implies a monitor of quality, and therefore cost! These monitors must be calibrated and profiled regularly using software such as X-Rite's EyeOneDisplay2 or ColorVision's Spyder range, or more specialised software supplied with the high-end monitors from EIZO, NEC and others. These softwares are used with a colorimeter, such as an X-Rite EyeOneDisplay or a ColorVision Spyder or a spectrophotometer: the X-Rite EyeOnePro is often used.

In addition to these areas many workflow software vendors offer systems, which provide more functionality to the approval cycle, with features such as:

• Online, browser based approval
• Approval cycle workflows with an approval hierarchy
• Online tools for messaging
• Online tools for proof mark ups and comments

The final part of a complete soft proofing approval chain is what is becoming to be called 'Press Side soft proofing. All that is meant by this is having a colour-managed, calibrated and profiled monitor by the press.

This application uses the same technology as discussed but its practical use, on press, has its own special requirements.

The need to display pages in the correct, imposed order and navigate to the required page is the additional most important additional area for this application.

Again there are software solutions that can provide these additional functions.

The gains that soft proofing provides are easy to assess:

• Faster proof approval cycles
• An audit trail of changes and approvers with some solutions
• Savings on material costs, paper and expensive inks
• Not transport/courier costs
• No administration or estabishment costs re packing, collating and storing paper proofs

Electronic media is commonly believed to be the green solution - no materials or inks and so obviously better for the environment. But this is not always the case, and getting the best environmental benefit involves some consideration about how the technology is used.

Soft proofing can avoid the need for inks or paper but does still involve materials and manufacturing - the equipment listed above, for example: monitors and measuring devices. These may well be needed anyway for other reasons, but should not be disregarded.

The main direct impact is from energy - you are using energy while reading soft proofs on screen, and the equipment that's used for file storage and transfer also uses energy - more than many people realise*. So things to think about are:

• How many people will be looking at the proofs:  It is very easy to add to the list just because it's so easy when you're not producing anything physical. But sticking to those who really need to check the proofs will keep down energy consumption.
• Content checking: Proof-reading is not easy on screen, and people who are checking the content may need to have printed copies to do so, even if they end up printing it themselves.
• Quality control management: Changing something in a soft proof doesn't somehow seem to be making a real change - after all it's not printed yet. So if those involved are not sufficiently disciplined about checking and making firm decisions, the proofing cycle can easily be extended - with the additional energy use, both for changes and proofing, and costs that go with this.

*Global Action Plan startled many IT people in 2007 when they published a report showing that the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector was responsible for around 2% of man-made CO2 each year - much the same as the global airline industry - and that it was growing faster than aviation. Since then many of the major players in the industry have carried out a great deal of work to understand and reduce energy requirements. A future article will give more information about ICT and energy.