Proofing at artwork creation and pre-press
File-to-File Comparison
It's a lot easier with Proofiler Artwork
EyeC Quality solutions are not just for ensuring the printed article is correct; if the artwork or plates are not right in the first place you may produce a perfect print job .. of the wrong artwork! Proofiler Graphic and Proofiler Text are powerful software tools for automatic proofreading at the artwork creation and pre-press or origination stages. At the artwork stage you want to be sure that all revisions are correct, annotations have been incorporated and that it complies with the customer’s requirements. At the pre-press stage it does sometimes happen that unintentional changes are made e.g. fonts are swapped, text or graphical objects are deleted or moved. EyeC Proofiler Graphic and Proofiler Text are invaluable automatic proofreading aids for checking for these kinds of errors.
Proofiler Graphic is a powerful software comparator that is used in artwork or pre-press departments for print proofing and comparing files graphically; for this the two files should have similar layouts. It compares two vectored or live text files (PDF, BMP, TIFF or JPEG) as graphical objects and identifies and displays any differences to the operator so they can be evaluated as to whether they are intentional changes or errors that have been inadvertently introduced while making a version change or at repro. Thanks to EyeC’s patented software it can even be used to check the stepped file against the customer proof.
- Customer Proof PDF
Stepped Repeat File (left click to enlarge)
A Proofiler Graphic will detect:
- Content errors of any kind
- Version mix-ups
- Font changes
- Missing special fonts
- Incorrect character spacing
- Missing special characters
- Incorrect font attributes
- Incorrect picture files
- Wrong bar codes
- Wrong colors
- Incorrect barcode design (optional)
and more.
With EyeC Proofiler Graphic you will stop wasting expensive consumables and valuable machine time because of problems that could have been detected at pre-press already. In addition there are optional tools for checking Braille and barcodes both 1D and 2D (Data Matrix and QR codes) and GS1 Databar (formerly known as RSS codes).
The ProofBook Graphic allows comparison of pre-press multi-page PDF’s to the customer proof. It is done automatically without having to load every page; within a couple of minutes a 42 page booklet PDF can be compared to the proof and a report generated showing all deviations. This report could be sent back to the studio for correction.
Unlike graphical comparison software Proofiler Text does not care if the layout of the two files is different . It proofs text on artwork for pharmaceutical or indeed any packaging application where the text has reflowed or may have totally different layouts, fonts and attributes. It is practically impossible to proof such documents using graphical comparisons or overlays, but Proofiler Text has no difficulty with such tasks. It can be used very early in the workflow because it can compare a Word document such as a ‘Manuscript’ used by pharmaceutical companies or ‘Pack Copy’ used in the food industry against the final artwork (prior to vectoring). Differences in layout, fonts, attributes and hyphenation can be ignored so actually only the text content is compared. Proofiler Text works for single pages, brochures, technical manuals or a complete book. It does not care about language and is equally at home proofing pictorial languages such Chinese, Korean and Japanese, right to left flowing languages such as Hebrew and Arabic or a mixture of all these on the same page! Quite often annotations are used within a PDF to indicate where changes need to be made. During the draft review process these annotations or ‘sticky notes’ can also be automatically compared to the modified text.
Once the comparison has been completed the operator decides if any variations are acceptable or not. He can then annotate the deviation which will go into the PDF report and sent back to the artwork department for correction. More detailed information on the text compare is available here
Our customers report that using our automated proofing software saves time and reduces the number of iterations an artwork goes through to get it right. With Proofiler Text and Proofiler Graphic you get it right first time and reduce your time to market – invaluable to most organisations.
Finally if you are are responsible for artwork in a pharmaceutical company you might want look at our Artwork Management System
Don’t wait for the next mishap! For more information call us on +44 (0)118 983 3347 or email us.