A1+ Proof colour-accurate, tiered pricing from € 29,-

We are happy to supply your proof with the current UGRA/Fogra media wedge CMYK V3.0 with test report.

The UGRA/Fogra media wedge CMYK V3.0 is the worldwide control tool for colour-accurate test prints. According to the Media Standard for offset printing, a colour-accurate proof must have a media wedge whose colour values comply with the tolerances of ISO 12647-7. The colour patches of the current media wedge CMYK V3.0 provide increased sensitivity in the highlights and shadow areas compared to the previous version 2.X, which is still used by many other proof service providers.

For a proof to be colour-accurate and legally binding, it must be provided with a media wedge. However, since hardly any printing company or agency has the measurement capability to verify a media wedge on-site, we offer you the option of providing the media wedge directly with a test report. This test report certifies that the media wedge and thus the proof is within ISO tolerances and is colour-accurate and legally binding.  

Your proof options: 

• without media wedge
• one media wedge without test report per page (surcharge €2.- / page)
• one media wedge with test report per page (surcharge €4.- / page)
• one media wedge with test report total per order (surcharge €4.- total)

You can order the media wedges per page directly with the respective proof format. To select a media wedge with test report total per order, please select it as a separate item and add it separately to your shopping cart.

 

 

For each item, you can upload one or more files after completing your order.
Each file can be up to 2 GB in size.

An example: You order 10 in DIN A3 format and 2 in DIN A2 format. After completing your order, you can upload a file with 10 pages in DIN A3 format for the items in DIN A3 format and two files with one page each in DIN A2 format for the two in DIN A2 format. If we are to make multiple copies of a proof, please let us know in the item message for that item.

https://shop.proof.de/admin/categories.php?cPath=1&pID=15&action=new_product#

The image shows what the upload area for an A4 proof looks like before uploading.

 

You now select your file to be proofed and upload it, or drag it into the upload window.

 

After uploading, you can check your proof data again, download it, delete it, or upload other data.

 

 

Now complete the order by clicking the "UPLOAD(S) COMPLETE, COMPLETE ORDER" button.

Your order is then no longer editable by you. We receive the message that we can now begin with the data check and the proof.
 

Even after completing the order, you can view your order at any time, but can no longer change it.

If your data should be faulty during the data check, we will reopen the order so you can delete the faulty data and upload new data. After that, please close the order again.

Your uploaded data will remain on our server for at least 1 year and can be viewed and downloaded by you during this time for verification purposes.

Shipping costs and delivery times

Packaging and shipping Germany:

Up to DIN A4+ format:	From DIN A3 format:
DHL small package: €4.70  UPS Express Saver: €13.- (delivery by end of business day) UPS Express before 12:00 noon: €15.- UPS Express before 10:30 a.m.: €25.- DHL / FedEX Express before 9:00 a.m.: €75.- DHL Express with Saturday delivery: €49.-	UPS package: €9.- UPS Express Saver: €13.- (delivery by end of business day) UPS Express before 12:00 noon: €15.- UPS Express before 10:30 a.m.: €25.- DHL / FedEX Express before 9:00 a.m.: €75.- DHL Express with Saturday delivery: €49.-
The standard delivery time for shipments within Germany is 1 to 4 working days*, exceptionally longer. Express shipments are usually delivered the next working day*. Orders with data receipt by 4 p.m. are dispatched on the same working day*. Orders with data receipt after 4 p.m. are dispatched on the following working day*. An express delivery before 9 a.m. is not possible in all areas of Germany. Please enquire briefly before ordering.
Packaging and shipping EU:
Up to DIN A4+ format:	From DIN A3 format:
DHL small package international: €10.- UPS Express Saver: €35.-	UPS package: €19.- UPS Express Saver: €45.-
The standard delivery time for shipments to EU countries is 2 to 5 working days*, exceptionally longer. Express shipments to European business centres are usually delivered the next working day*, but can also have significantly longer delivery times.
Packaging and shipping, non-EU Europe and North America:
Up to DIN A4+ format:	From DIN A3 format:
DHL small package international: €10.- UPS Express: €45.-	Package or parcel DHL/UPS: €25.- UPS Express: €55.-
The standard delivery time for shipments abroad is 2 to 5 working days*, sometimes considerably longer. We have seen delivery times of 6 weeks to New York. Therefore, especially for shipments to the USA that should arrive promptly, please choose express shipping. Express shipments are delivered the next or second working day*, but sometimes only a few days later.
Packaging and shipping rest of world
Up to DIN A4+ format:	From DIN A3 format:
DHL small package international: €10.- UPS Express: €55.-	Package or parcel DHL/UPS: €25.- UPS Express: €75.-
The standard delivery time for shipments to worldwide destinations is up to 15 working days*, exceptionally longer, up to several weeks. We ship here by Post Priority registered mail or DHL parcel international. Therefore, especially for shipments that should arrive promptly, please choose express shipping. Express shipments are usually delivered within four working days*, exceptionally also 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 part. To determine your exact price, please log in and add the required items to your shopping cart. 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 recalculate potentially significantly higher shipping costs. This can occur with bulky and large shipments such as roll-ups or very large proofs, but also sometimes with orders to remote regions or special business centres: example Croatia: express shipping to a Croatian island costs four times as much as shipping to Zagreb. We must therefore in some cases subsequently charge higher shipping costs than those displayed in the shop, as we can only take the country into account during the shipping cost calculation, not the region. However, we will always inform you of any additional costs before dispatch.  If you have any questions, please call us. *Working day = Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays in Germany and Baden-Württemberg. Please note the regulations in the different federal states (Wikipedia). No shipping and no delivery on public holidays.
Country assignment for shipping via Post or DHL / UPS standard You will find the country assignments for shipping listed in detail here.

To the proof prices

 

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

Black and white, CMYK or files with PANTONE and HKS spot colours. PDF files in PDF/X-1a, PDF/X-3 or PDF/X-4 format are optimal for proofing.

PDF/X-1a (widely used outside Europe) and PDF/X-3 are traditionally the PDF files optimised for printing. These ISO standards ensure, for example, that fonts and images are embedded. They are recognised and desired by most printers as the standard for the exchange of print data. 

PDF/X-4 is the new printing standard for PDF files. In contrast to PDF/X-3, PDF/X-4 files can contain transparencies. PDF/X-3 was also already a media-neutral standard, but 99% of all X-3 files contain only CMYK colours and spot colours. PDF/X-4 is still rarely used, but increasingly requested by printers, as with X-4 data the separation can be placed as late as possible in the process chain. The standard offers many advantages, but also risks. 

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

If you want to get exact information about the advantages and disadvantages of each format, we recommend the pages of PDFX-ready. Here you will find all information, guides for PDF creation and Acrobat creation and Acrobat check profiles for PDF/X-4 files. 

PDFX-ready guide for PDF/X creation
PDF preflight checks for Adobe Acrobat
Creator workflow for sheet-fed offset, web offset and newspaper printing

All three PDF/X standards can be selected and created during export in all common layout programmes. 

How we handle your colour data

For us, a proof is absolute colour accuracy. It is therefore important that you know exactly how we handle colours in the files you supply in detail. 

CMYK colours

With CMYK colours the rule is simple: All CMYK colours contained in your proofs are output by us with their exact colour values in your ordered output colour space.

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

RGB colours

If your PDF files contain RGB colours, we first check whether your PDFs conform to 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 proof your PDFs taking the input profiles into account, converting all your RGB data directly during proofing according to your specifications from RGB to CMYK. If your images are in Device RGB, you will receive a "Data faulty" email 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 faulty" email.

Example: You supply a PDF/X-4 file with sRGB and Adobe RGB images with the output profile PSOCoatedV3 and order a proof in PSOCoatedV3: We proof your data and take all your RGB colour spaces and rendering intents into account correctly. However, if your file has ISOCoatedV2 as the output profile, we trigger a "Data faulty" email, as we would now have to "overwrite" the output colour space stored in your PDF, and thus would have to perform colour transformations that are not clearly traceable for you.

If you do not send us PDFs but pure TIFFs or JPEGs in RGB profiles, we trigger a "Data faulty" email. If we should output your TIFFs or JPEGs in RGB profiles such as "sRGB" or "AdobeRGB" in these colour spaces or output these, for example, relatively colourmetrically in your ordered output colour space, please write to us in the "Notes on your order" field, which you will find during the order processing. 

For photo prints in RGB colour spaces, you should best choose our fineart prints, which are perfect for this purpose. Pure RGB output is not actually intended for proofs. 

Spot colours

We can simulate all spot colours very well - whether PANTONE, HKS, Toyo or custom, your own spot colours. The only exception: metallic colours and neon colours.

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

If you use a PANTONE "U" colour for "Uncoated" natural paper in a proof for art print standards such as ISOCoatedV2, we trigger a "Data faulty" email. We can also simulate PANTONE "U" colours on a proof for art print paper, but an offset printer could not print this because when printing on art print paper, PANTONE "C" colour will always result. The same applies to HKS K or PANTONE C colours on proofs for natural papers such as PSOUncoatedV3: Here too we would send you a "Data faulty" email, as we also cannot often achieve the coated colour on our natural papers for proofs. Some examples:

Proof: ISOCoated V2 | Colours: PANTONE C / HKS K | Result: Perfect for proofing and offset printing
Proof: ISOCoated V2 | Colours: PANTONE U / HKS N | Result: Difficult, as proofable but not offset printable
Proof: PSOUncoated V3 | Colours: PANTONE U / HKS N | Result: Perfect for proofing and offset printing
Proof: PSOUncoated V3 | Colours: PANTONE C / HKS K | Result: Difficult, as usually not proofable and not offset printable

When proofing spot colours, you should also note: For spot colours, only the respective solid, i.e. the 100% spot colour area, is stored in our proofing system. A 50% area of PANTONE 123 C or HKS 15 N would 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 are still only an intelligent calculation and not a simulation based on a metrologically recorded reference. The same applies when, for example, a spot colour is semi-transparent overprinted by another spot colour or by a CMYK image. 

Grayscale

We treat grayscale in PDF files as if they are on the black channel of the ordered proof output colour space. A 50% grey is thus output as 0/0/0/50 in CMYK, this applies to images in Device Grey as well as to all other grayscale data in PDF files. Even if you do not send us PDFs but pure TIFFs or JPEGs in grayscale, we would proceed so that we treat these as the black channel of the ordered output colour space. If we should output your TIFFs or JPEGs in grey profiles such as "Dot Gain 15%" or an "EPSON Grey Gamma 1.8" in these colour spaces or output these, for example, relatively colourmetrically in your ordered output colour space, please write to us in the "Notes on your order" field, which you will find during the order processing.

proof papers

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

For the simulation of art print papers we use the Gravure Proof Paper from EFI with 245g/m². It feels very high quality and is also perfect for presentations with customers.
The 4245 is a coated universally applicable semi-matte and smudge-resistant paper. This proofing paper, specially developed for offset and gravure printing, is compatible with paper types 1 and 2 of ISO 12647-2 and is almost without paper simulation for these papers. The EFI 4245 is certified as 4245 GRACoL/SWOP #3 and for the gravure printing area (S1 and S2) and for the offset printing area (PT3) this paper is also certified by FOGRA. 
 

    EFI Gravure Proof Paper 4245 Semi-matte:

• Semi-matte coated paper
• Very large colour gamut
• One-sided printable
• Very good fade resistance
• Very low proportion of optical brighteners
• Weight: 245 g/m²
• Thickness: 260 μ
• Opacity: 96%
• L*a*b paper white: 94.8 / 0.3 / -1.5

For anyone who needs a proof for natural papers, we offer a proof on matte EFI 9120XF 120g/m² paper. This proofing paper contains virtually no optical brighteners. The special colouring and high L value are ideal for the simulation of matte printed materials. It is perfect for the simulation of natural papers as it is very similar in feel and thickness to letter paper.
 

    EFI Proof Paper 9120XF Matt

• Large colour gamut
• Slightly foldable
• Low proportion of optical brighteners
• Weight: 120 g/m²
• Thickness: 150 μ
• Opacity: 95%
• Gloss: 6%
• L*a*b paper white: 96.7 / 0.2 / -2.4

The ECI (European Colour Initiative) states in its practical recommendation "Uncoated":
"Another special feature to note when proofing for printing on uncoated paper: The semi-matte proofing paper typically used for "coated" produces poor visual proof-print match even with very good metrological media wedge evaluation. The use of uncoated proofing paper prepared for printing on proof printers provides the best possible metrological match with the target values from the characterisation file and also provides the best possible visual match between proof and print."
http://www.eci.org/doku.php?id=de:colorstandards:offset
 

proof papers with optical brighteners (OBA)

EFI Proof Paper 8245 OBA Semi-matte
For anyone who needs a proof for art print papers with optical brighteners, we offer a proof on semi-matte EFI 8245 OBA semi-matte with 245 g/m² paper. The EFI Proof Paper 8245OBA Semi-matte was specially developed for proofing white and brightened, coated publication papers. The white point of this semi-matte paper is very close to the values of the FOGRA51 profile and thus enables proofing according to FOGRA51 with virtually no paper white simulation. It is also well suited for the simulation of print conditions PC1 according to ISO 12647-2:2013.
 

• 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 Matt
For anyone who needs a proof for natural papers with optical brighteners, we offer a proof on matte EFI 7175 OBA matte with 175g/m² paper. The EFI Proof Paper 8175OBA Matt was specially developed for proofing uncoated, heavily brightened publication papers. It is very suitable for proofing according to Fogra52.
 

• 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 natural papers are FSC certified, the 8245OBA paper is PEFC certified.

Feel free to call us anytime with any questions about proofs.  

Phone: +49 (0) 7071-7952740 
Mon - Fri: 9.00 - 6.00 p.m.

• Which profile is right for me?
• How do I need to create the PDF file?
• How quickly can you dispatch?
• ...?

Outside our business hours you can also send us an email at any time with your questions, which we will answer as soon as possible: info@proof.de
We have compiled the most important questions here for you: Frequently asked questions
You will also find a wealth of knowledge on the topics of proof, digital proof, online proof and colour proof directly here: proof.de

Matthias Betz and the proof.de team