Has Proofing Gone ‘Soft’?

pP: Is inkjet the preferred technology for the remote output of remote proofs?

Ranasinha—If you’re looking for the combination of accuracy, consistency, and price per proof, then certainly inkjet technology lends itself to the process very well, yes.

Summers—It very much depends on the application and which inkjet device you’re talking about, because not all inkjet devices are created equal. Let’s say we had an app that requires an opaque white, metallic coated substrate, metallic inks on top of that, then several layers of wild spot colors on the edges of the gamut. Depending on how many of those kinds of parameters are included in the requirements, an inkjet device in all fairness may not be able to handle all those things. Now if those colors are just a piece of it and people can use their judgment and say I know that one color out of all the things we’re working on this package won’t render properly on inkjet, and we’ll have to make sure the printer uses the special ink on press and let’s watch carefully—but everything else will be okay—well, okay. But if these 10 or 12 colors we have to remember won’t look right, then at some point you throw your hands up and say well, ‘It’s an interesting idea what it might look like,’ and you’d want to rethink your choice of output device. And in many cases, people still won’t accept anything less than a press proof—realistically—but I think that’s getting less and less.