Online Proofing - Make Mine Soft-Serve

Education is key

In the end, wider adoption of soft proofing technologies will be built on the growing trust between printers and their clients. As such, the remaining obstacles are far less technical than cultural or psychological.

Says Kodak's Hardiman, "We do our best to educate customers as to where these monitors should be placed and viewed; we have pop-up messages that appear every 24 hours that say it's time to calibrate; we've put in application tools that allow vendors to see if their customers are making comments on a calibrated monitor to ensure consistency; we've done everything but screw handles into the monitor so that the customer can hold the proof just like they used to, but we haven't yet built the arm that comes out and smacks them upside the head when they've not viewing it appropriately."