We are happy to deliver your proof with the latest UGRA/Fogra Mediawedge CMYK V3.0 with Measurement Protocol.

The UGRA/Fogra Mediawedge CMYK V3.0 is a world standard for colourprecise . According to "ProzessStandard Offsetdruck (PSO)" a Proof is required to have a Media Wedge, which colours are within the tolerances of ISO 12647-7. 

Your proofing options:

• without Media Wedge
• one Media Wedge per page (plus € 2,- / page)
• one Media Wedge with Measurement Protocol per page (plus € 4,- / page)
• one Media Wedge with Measurement Protocol over all (plus € 4,- / order)

You can order your Media Wedges directly while choosing the article. If you would like to order one Media Wedge over all, please choose this article in addition to your proof.

 

 

You can upload one or more files to each article after the order is completed. Each file can be up to 2 GB in size.

For example, you order 10 in the format A3 and 2 in the format DIN A2. After the order has been completed, you can upload a file with 10 pages in DIN A3 format to DIN A3 format and two files in A2 format with one page each. If we are to make several copies of one proof, please let us know about during the order process in the "commentary" field.

The figure shows how your order of a DIN A4 proof looks before the upload.

You now select and upload your file to be projected.

After the upload, you can check your proof data again, delete files and reupload or upload others.

 

When finished uploading, complete the order by clicking the button "COMPLETE YOUR ORDER".

Your order will no longer be editable for you. We get the message that we can now start with the data check and the proofing.

 

You can view your order at any time, but after completion you cannot change it any longer.

If your proofing data shows faults during the data check, we will reopen the order again, so that you can delete the faulty data and upload correct files. Then complete the order again.

Your uploaded files for proofing currently remain on our server for at least 1 year, and can be viewed and downloaded during this time.

Shipping costs and delivery times

Postage and packaging to Germany

Up to DIN A4+:	DIN A3 and larger:
DHL Small Parcel: € 4,70 UPS Express: € 13,- DHL Express before 12 a.m.: € 15,- UPS Express before 10.30 a.m.: € 25,- DHL / FedEX Express before 9 a.m.: € 75,- DHL Express with delivery on a Saturday: € 49,-	UPS Standard: € 9,- UPS Express: € 13,- DHL Express before 12 a.m.: € 15,- UPS Express before 10.30 a.m.: € 25,- DHL / FedEX before 9 a.m.: € 75,- DHL Express with delivery on a Saturday: € 49,-
Standard delivery time for shipments within Germany is 1 to 4 working days*, in exceptional cases longer. Express shipments are usually delivered on the next working day*. Orders received by 4 p.m. are shipped on the same working day*. Orders received after 4 p.m. are shipped on the following working day*. Express delivery before 9 a.m. is not possible in all areas of Germany. Please enquire before placing your order.
Postage and Packaging to the EU:
Up to DIN A4+:	DIN A3 and larger:
DHL Small Parcel International: € 10,- DHL / UPS Express : € 35,-	UPS Standardt: € 19,- DHL / UPS Express : € 45,-
Standard delivery time for shipments to other EU countries is 2 to 5 working days*, or longer in exceptional cases. Express shipments are usually delivered to European economic centres on the next working day*, but may also take significantly longer.
Postage and Packing Non EU Europe, Switzerland and North America:
Up to DIN A4+:	DIN A3 and larger:
DHL Small Parcel International: € 10,- DHL / UPS Express: € 45,-	DHL Parcel / UPS Standard: € 25,- DHL / UPS Express: € 55,-
Standard delivery time for international shipments is 2 to 5 working days*, but in some cases it can take significantly longer. We have seen delivery times of 6 weeks to New York. Therefore, please choose express delivery, especially for shipments to the USA that need to arrive promptly. Express shipments are delivered on the next or second working day*, but in some cases it can take a few days longer.
Postage and Packing Rest of the World
Up to DIN A4+:	DIN A3 and larger:
DHL Small Parcel International: € 10,- DHL / UPS Express: € 55,-	DHL Parcel / UPS Standard: € 25,- DHL / UPS Express: € 75,-
The standard delivery time for shipments to destinations worldwide is up to 15 working days*, in exceptional cases longer, up to several weeks. We ship by Priority Registered Mail or DHL International Parcel Service. Therefore, please select express shipping, especially for shipments that need to arrive promptly. Express shipments are usually delivered within four working days*, but in exceptional cases it may take longer. Island locations and remote regions in the destination countries can significantly delay delivery.
Shipping zones are regulated differently by Deutsche Post, DHL and, in some cases, other carriers. To determine your exact price, please log in and add the required items to your shopping basket. After entering the delivery address, the shop will display the individual shipping options and calculate the shipping costs correctly.  In individual cases, we reserve the right to charge significantly higher shipping costs. This may apply to bulky and large shipments such as roll-ups or very large proofs, but in some cases also to orders to more remote regions or special economic centres: Example Croatia: Express shipping to a Croatian island costs four times as much as shipping to Zagreb. In some cases, we therefore have to charge higher shipping costs than those stated in the shop, as we can only take the country into account when calculating shipping costs, not the region. However, we will always inform you of any additional costs before shipping.  If you have any questions, please give us a call. * Working day = Monday to Friday No shipping and no delivery on public holidays in Germany / Baden-Württemberg
Country assignment for shipping by post or DHL / UPS standard The country assignments for shipping are listed here in detail.

Zu den Proof-Preisen

 

Most customers send us PDF data. We accept PDF, EPS, TIF and JPEG files for proofing.

Black-and-white, CMYK or even files with PANTONE and HKS or TOYO spotcolors. PDF files in PDF/X-1a, PDF/X-3 or PDF/X-4 format are ideal for proofing.

PDF/X-1a (widely distributed outside of Europe) and PDF/X-3 are traditionally the PDF files optimized for printing. These ISO standards represent e.g. fonts and images are surely embedded. They are recognized and requested as the standard for data exchange of print data at most printers.

PDF/X-4 is the new printing standard for PDF files. Unlike PDF/X-3, PDF/X-4 files can contain transparencies. PDFX-3 was already a medaneutral standard, but 99% of all X-3 files contain only CMYK colors and spot colors. PDF/X-4 is still rare, but more and more requested by printers, as X-4 data can be separated as late as possible into the process chain. The standard offers many advantages, but also some risks.

Proof GmbH is the only company in Germany to be certified by PDFX-ready for the proof output of PDF / X-4 data and has been a member of PDFX-ready for several years.

If you want to know exactly the pros and cons of the respective formats, we recommend the pages of the Swiss PDFX-ready Initiative. Here you will find competent information, PDF creation guides and Acrobat Creation and Acrobat test profiles for PDF / X-4 files, although the information given in english is not as comprehensive as the germanspeaking webpages. PDFX-ready offers:

PDFX-ready PDF / X creation guide
PDF preflights for Adobe Acrobat
Creator workflows for sheetfed, web offset and newspaper printing

In all standard layout programs, all three PDF/X standards can be selected and created during output.

How we handle your colour data

For us, a proof means absolute colour accuracy. Therefore, it is important that you know exactly how we handle colours in your supplied files in detail for proofs. 

CMYK colours

For CMYK colours, the rule is simple: we will take all CMYK colours contained in your proofs with their exact colour values into your ordered output colour space. 

Example: You upload a PDF in ISOCoated (Fogra27) and order a proof in ISOCoatedV2 (Fogra39). We will output a colour value of CMYK 100/70/0/0 in your PDF file with its exact colour values 100/70/0/0 in your ordered colour space ISOCoatedV2. There will be no conversion from ISOCoated to ISOCoatedV2. This also applies to CMYK TIFFs or JPEGs.

RGB colours

If your PDF files contain RGB colours, we first check whether your PDFs comply with either the PDF/X-3 or PDF/X-4 standard, and whether your RGB images are correctly tagged with colour profiles and rendering intents. If this is the case, we check whether your PDFs also have the correct output colour space. If this is also the case, we will proof your PDFs taking into account the input profiles, i.e. we convert all your RGB data from RGB to CMYK directly during proofing in accordance with your tagged colour profiles. If your images are in device RGB, you will receive a "data incorrect" email from us with a note, as we cannot reliably interpret your RGB data. If your images are correctly tagged, but your output colour space does not match the ordered proof output colour space, you will also receive a "data incorrect" email.

Example: You deliver a PDF/X-4 file with sRGB and AdobeRGB images with the output colour profile PSOCoatedV3 and order a proof in PSOCoatedV3: We will proof your data and interpret all your contained RGB colour spaces and rendering intents correctly. However, if your file has ISOCoatedV2 as the output profile, we will trigger a "data incorrect" email, as we would now have to "overwrite" your output colour space embedded in the PDF, and thus carry out colour transformations that are not clearly comprehensible to you.

If you do not upload PDFs but rather TIFFs or JPEGs files in RGB colour profiles, we will send you a "data incorrect" email. If we should output your TIFFs or JPEGs in RGB profiles such as "sRGB" or "AdobeRGB" in exactlyl these colour spaces or, for example, output them relatively colourimetrically in your ordered CMYK output colour space, then please write this to us in the "Notes on your order" field which you will find in the course of the checkout process. 

For photo prints in RGB colour spaces, it is best to choose our fine art prints, which are perfectly suited for this. In the proof, a pure RGB output is not actually intended. 

Spot colours

If your file contains spot colours such as PANTONE and HKS colours, our proofing software recognises these colours by their colour names. If your spot colours are correctly named such as "PANTONE 123 C" or "HKS 15 N", we will take the digital colour reference data from the PANTONE and HKS master standards and apply these to your spot colours in the proof.

If you were to use a PANTONE U colour for uncoated paper in a proof for coated printing standards, we will trigger a "data incorrect" email. While we would be able to simulate "U" colours on a proof for coated colour standards, an offset printer would not be able to print a PANTONE U colour on an coated paper. The same applies to HKS K or PANTONE C colours on proofs for uncoated papers such as PSOUncoatedV3: Here, too, we would send you a "data incorrect" email, as we are often also unable to achieve the coated saturaation on our uncoated proofing substrates.

Please note: In the case of spot colours, only the respective full tone, i.e. the 100% spot colour, is implemented in our proofing system. A 50% area of PANTONE 123 C or HKS 15 N would therefore be "calculated" by the proofing software, as no real, measured colour data for the 50% value is stored in our system. These values are calculated very intelligently by the proofing software, but still: It is just a calculation and not a simulation based on a measured reference. The same applies if, for example, a spot colour is overprinted semi-transparently by another spot colour or by a CMYK image. 

Grayscale

We treat grayscales in PDF files as if the grayscale data were on the black channel of the ordered proof output colour space. So a 50% grey will be printed like a 0/0/0/50 in CMYK, this applies to images in Device-Gray like to all other greyscale data in PDF files. Even if you do not supply us with PDFs, but with pure TIFFs or JPEGs in greyscale, we would proceed in such a way that we treat these as black channels of the ordered output colour space. If we should output your TIFFs or JPEGs in greyscale profiles such as "Dot Gain 15%" or an "EPSON Gray Gamma 1.8" in these colour spaces or, for example, output them relatively colourimetrically in your in the ordered output colour space, then please write this to us in the field "Notes on your order", which you will find in the course of the order processing.

Proofing Papers

We are proofing on four certified paper grades, two without optical brighteners for "classic" and two proof papers with optical brighteners for Fogra51 / Fogra52, GRACol and SWOP 2013 and Heaven42 . All proof papers are certified by Fogra as proof substrates:

For the simulation of traditional coated printing papers we use the Gravure Proof paper from EFI with 245g / sqm. It feels very high-quality, and is also perfect for presentations at the customer.
The EFI Gravure Proof Paper 4245 Semimatt meets the industry's most stringent quality and consistency re-quirements. A very low content of optical brighteners guarantees a high color stability – metamerism effects are minimised. The microporous, PE coated media hits the Fogra Norm 39L without any problems. The white point of the 4245 barely departs from the predetermined value defined by ISO 12647-7. In most cases the simulation of the paper white becomes redundant. The 4245 provides customers with the consistency and reliability sealed by GRACoL/SWOP (granted for #3) and Fogra certification (granted for PT3, S1 and S2). 
 

EFI Gravure Proof Paper 4245 Semimatt:

• Semimatt coated paper
• Very large color gamut
• One-sided printing
• Very good fading behavior
• Very small amount of optical brighteners
• Weight: 245 gr / m²
• Thickness: 260μ
• Opacity: 96%
• L * a * b Paper white: 94.8 / 0.3 / -1.5

If you need a proof for uncoated paper, we offer a proof on matt EFI 9120XF 120g / m² paper. This proof paper contains practically no optical brightener. The special coloring and the high L-value are very suitable for the simulation of uncoated printing. It is perfect for the simulation of uncoated paper, since it is very similar in haptic and thickness to a stationery.
 

EFI Proof Paper 9120XF Matt

• Large color gamut
• Easy to fold
• Low proportion of optical brighteners
• Weight: 120 gr / m²
• Thickness: 150μ
• Opacity: 95%
• Gloss: 6%
• L * a * b Paper white: 96.7 / 0.2 / -2.4

The ECI (European Color Initiative) writes in it's practice recommendation for "Uncoated" -:
"Another special feature of the proofing machine is that when printing on uncoated paper, the semimatte proof paper commonly used for "Coated"- results in a poor visual proof-to-print correspondence even in the case of a very good measurement result of the media wedge evaluation. Printing on uncoated proof paper results in the best possible matching with the set values ​​from the characterization file and ensures the best possible visual correspondence between proof and print. "
 

Proof Substrates with optical Brighteners (OBA)

EFI Proof Paper 8245 OBA Semimatt
The EFI Proof Paper 8245OBA Semimatt was especially developed for proofing of coated production papers with OBA content. The very similar white point of the EFI Proof Paper 8245OBA Semimatt to FOGRA51 enables proofing without paper white simulation. It is also very suitable for simulating PC1 according to ISO 12647-2:2013. This paper is FOGRA certified according to ISO 12647-7 (semi matte).

• Weight: 245 g / m²
• Thickness: 245 μm
• Opacity:> 95%
• Gloss: 22%
• CIE L*a*b* (M0): 95.8 | 0.9 | -4.3
• CIE L*a*b* (M1): 96.0 | 1.1 | -5.6

EFI Proof Paper 8175 OBA Matte
The EFI Proof Paper 8175OBA Matt was especially developed for proofing of uncoated production papers with high OBA content. It is very suitable for proofing according to FOGRA52. This paper is FOGRA certified according to ISO 12647-7 (matte).

• Weight: 175 g / m²
• Thickness: 230 μm
• Opacity: 97%
• Gloss: 5%
• CIE L*a*b* (M0): 96.8 | 2,5 | -7.7
• CIE L*a*b* (M1): 97.0 | 3.0 | -10.8

The two uncoated papers are FSC certified, the 8245OBA paper is PEFC certified.

Please feel free to contact us anytime without any obligation or cost. 

Phone: +49 (0) 7071-7952740
Mon - Fri: 9 am - 6 pm

• Which profile is right for me?
• How do I create the PDF file?
• How fast can you send the ?
• ...?

Outside of our opening times, you can always send us an email with your questions, which we will answer as soon as possible: info@proof.de
We have compiled the most important questions for you here: Frequently asked questions about Proofs
A lot of knowledge about Proof, Digitalproof, Onlineproof and Colorproof can be found here: proofing.de

Matthias Betz and the Proof.de team