A0+ proof colour-accurate, tiered pricing from €58,-

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-binding test prints. According to the Media Standard Offset Printing, a colour-binding proof must have a media wedge whose colour values comply with the tolerances of ISO 12647-7. The colour fields of the current media wedge CMYK V3.0 provide increased sensitivity in the highlights and shadows compared to the previous version 2.X, which is still used by many other proof service providers.

For a proof to be colour- and legally binding, it must be provided with a media wedge. However, since hardly any print shop or agency has the measuring capabilities 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- 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 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 per order, please select it as a separate item and add it to your shopping basket separately.

 

 

You can upload one or more files for each item 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 ones 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 one, please let us know in the item message for the item.

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

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

 

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) READY, COMPLETE ORDER" button.

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

You can view your order at any time even after completing it, but you can no longer make changes to 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 complete the order again.

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

Shipping costs and delivery times

Packaging and shipping Germany:

Up to DIN A4+ format:	From DIN A3 format onwards:
DHL small parcel: €4.70 UPS Express Saver: €13.- (delivery by end of business day) UPS Express before 12:00 noon: €15.- UPS Express before 10:30 am: €25.- DHL / FedEX Express before 9:00 am: €75.- DHL Express with Saturday delivery: €49.-	UPS parcel: €9.- UPS Express Saver: €13.- (delivery by end of business day) UPS Express before 12:00 noon: €15.- UPS Express before 10:30 am: €25.- DHL / FedEX Express before 9:00 am: €75.- DHL Express with Saturday delivery: €49.-
The standard delivery time for shipments within Germany is 1 to 4 business days*, in exceptional cases longer. Express shipments are usually delivered the next business day*. Orders with data received by 4 pm are shipped the same business day*. Orders with data received after 4 pm are shipped the following business day*. An express before 9 am is not possible in all areas of Germany. Please contact us briefly before placing your order.
Packaging and shipping EU:
Up to DIN A4+ format:	From DIN A3 format onwards:
DHL small parcel international: €10.- UPS Express Saver: €35.-	UPS parcel: €19.- UPS Express Saver: €45.-
The standard delivery time for shipments to EU countries is 2 to 5 business days*, in exceptional cases longer. Express shipments to European economic centres are usually delivered the next business 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 onwards:
DHL small parcel international: €10.- UPS Express: €45.-	Parcel or small parcel DHL/UPS: €25.- UPS Express: €55.-
The standard delivery time for shipments abroad is 2 to 5 business days*, sometimes considerably longer. We have seen delivery times of 6 weeks to New York. Please choose express shipping in particular if you are shipping to the USA and it should arrive promptly. Express shipments are delivered the next or second business day*, but sometimes only a few days later.
Packaging and shipping rest of world
Up to DIN A4+ format:	From DIN A3 format onwards:
DHL small parcel international: €10.- UPS Express: €55.-	Parcel or small parcel DHL/UPS: €25.- UPS Express: €75.-
The standard delivery time for shipments to worldwide destinations is up to 15 business days*, in exceptional cases longer up to several weeks. We ship here by Post Priority registered mail or DHL international parcel. Please choose express shipping in particular if you are shipping and it should arrive promptly. Express shipments are usually delivered within four business days*, in exceptional cases also longer. Island locations and remote regions in the destination countries can significantly delay delivery.
The shipping zones are regulated differently by Deutsche Post, DHL and partially. 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 recalculate possibly significantly higher shipping costs. This can happen with bulky and large shipments such as roll-ups or very large proofs, but also in some cases with 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. We must therefore in some cases subsequently charge higher shipping costs than displayed in the shop, since we can only consider the country but not the region during the shipping cost calculation. However, we will always inform you of any additional costs before shipment.  If you have any questions, please call us. *Business day = Monday to Friday, excluding statutory public holidays in Germany or Baden-Württemberg. Please note the regulations in the different federal states (Wikipedia). No shipping and no delivery on public holidays.
Country classification for shipping by post or DHL / UPS standard The country classifications for shipping can be found here in detail.

To proof prices

 

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

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 distributed 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 print shops as standard for the data exchange of printing data. 

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 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 desired, but increasingly by print shops, since 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. 

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.

For those who want to find out exactly about the advantages and disadvantages of the respective formats, we recommend the pages of PDFX-ready. You will find all information, guidelines for PDF creation and Acrobat creation and Acrobat test profiles for PDF/X-4 files here. 

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 binding. Therefore, it is important that you know exactly how we handle colours in your supplied files in detail. 

CMYK colours

For CMYK colours, the rule is simple: All CMYK colours contained in your proofs are output with their exact colour values in your requested 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 with its exact colour values 100/70/0/0 in your requested 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 comply with either the PDF/X-3 or PDF/X-4 standard, and whether your RGB images are correctly marked 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 into account the input profiles, converting all your RGB data directly during proofing according to your markings from RGB to CMYK. If your images are in Device-RGB, you will receive a "data faulty" email with a note, since we cannot reliably interpret your RGB data then. If your images are correctly marked but your output colour space does not match the requested proof output colour space, you will also receive a "data faulty" email.

Example: You supply a PDF/X-4 file with sRGB and AdobeRGB images with the output profile PSOCoatedV3 and order a proof in PSOCoatedV3: We proof your data and correctly consider all your RGB colour spaces and rendering intents. However, if your file has ISOCoatedV2 as output profile, we send a "data faulty" email because we would now have to "override" the output colour space stored in the PDF, and thus perform colour transformations that you cannot easily understand.

If you do not send us PDFs but pure TIFFs or JPEGs in RGB profiles, we send 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 them, for example, relatively colourimetrically in your requested output colour space, please write to us in the "Notes on your order" field, which you will find during the order process. 

For photo prints in RGB colour spaces, you should choose our fine art prints, which are perfectly suited for this. Pure RGB output is actually not intended in proofing. 

Spot colours

We can simulate all spot colours very well - whether PANTONE, HKS, Toyo or individual, custom spot colours. The only exception: metallic colours and neon 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 like "PANTONE 123 C" or "HKS 15 N", we use the digital colour reference data we have stored 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 image printing standards such as ISOCoatedV2, we send a "data faulty" email. We can also simulate PANTONE "U" colours on a proof for image printing paper, but an offset printing company could not print that because PANTONE C colour will always result when printing on image printing paper. The same applies to HKS K or PANTONE C colours on proofs for natural papers such as PSOUncoatedV3: Here too we would send a "data faulty" email to you, as we too often cannot achieve the coated colour on our natural papers for proofs. Some examples:

Proof: ISOCoated V2 | Colours: PANTONE C / HKS K | Result: Perfect proofable and offset-printable
Proof: ISOCoated V2 | Colours: PANTONE U / HKS N | Result: Difficult because proofable but not offset-printable
Proof: PSOUncoated V3 | Colours: PANTONE U / HKS N | Result: Perfect proofable and offset-printable
Proof: PSOUncoated V3 | Colours: PANTONE C / HKS K | Result: Difficult because usually not proofable and not offset-printable

When proofing spot colours, you should also note: For spot colours, we only have the respective solid, i.e. the 100% spot colour area stored in our proofing system. A 50% area of PANTONE 123 C or HKS 15 N would be calculated by the proofing software, as we do not have actual measured colour data for the 50% value stored in our system. These values are calculated very intelligently by the proofing software, but they are still only a clever calculation and not a simulation based on a metrologically recorded reference. The same applies if, for example, a spot colour is semi-transparently overprinted by another spot colour or by a CMYK image. 

Greyscale

We treat greyscales in PDF files as if they were on the black channel of the requested 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 greyscale data in PDF files. Even if you do not send us PDFs but pure TIFFs or JPEGs in greyscale, we would proceed so that we treat them as the black channel of the requested output colour space. If we should output your TIFFs or JPEGs in grey profiles such as "Dot Gain 15%" or an "EPSON Gray Gamma 1.8" in these colour spaces or output them, for example, relatively colourimetrically in your requested output colour space, please write to us in the "Notes on your order" field, which you will find during the order process.

proof papers

We proof on four certified paper types, two without optical brighteners for "classical" 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 image printing papers we use the Gravure Proof Paper from EFI with 245 gsm. It feels very high quality and is also perfect for customer presentations.
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 comes close to these papers with virtually no paper simulation. The EFI 4245 is certified as GRACoL/SWOP #3 4245 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
• Printable on one side
• Very good fading behaviour
• Very low content of optical brighteners
• Weight: 245 gr/qm
• Thickness: 260 μ
• Opacity: 96%
• L*a*b paper whiteness: 94.8 / 0.3 / -1.5

For those who need a proof for natural papers, we offer a proof on matte EFI 9120XF 120 gsm paper. This proofing paper contains practically no optical brighteners. The special colouration and the high L value are very suitable for the simulation of matte prints. It is perfect for the simulation of natural papers because it is very similar to letterhead paper in feel and thickness.
 

    EFI Proof Paper 9120XF matte

• Large colour gamut
• Slightly foldable
• Low content of optical brighteners
• Weight: 120 gr/qm
• Thickness: 150 μ
• Opacity: 95%
• Gloss: 6%
• L*a*b paper whiteness: 96.7 / 0.2 / -2.4

The ECI (European Colour Initiative) states in its practice recommendation "Uncoated":
"Another special feature to note when proofing for printing on uncoated paper is that the semi-matte proofing paper usually used for "coated" results in poor visual proof-print agreement, even with very good metrological results of the media wedge evaluation. The use of uncoated proofing paper prepared for printing on proofing printers provides the best possible metrological agreement with the target values from the characterisation file and also provides the best possible visual agreement 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 those who need a proof for image printing papers with optical brighteners, we offer a proof on semi-matte EFI 8245 OBA semi-matte with 245 gr/qm paper. The EFI Proof Paper 8245OBA semi-matte was specially developed for proofing white and brightened, coated printing papers. The whiteness 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 whiteness simulation. It is also well suited for simulating printing 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 matte
For those who need a proof for natural papers with optical brighteners, we offer a proof on matte EFI 7175 OBA matte with 175 gsm paper. The EFI Proof Paper 8175OBA matte was specially developed for proofing uncoated, highly brightened printing papers. It is very well suited 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.

For all questions about proofing, please feel free to call us at any time. 

Telephone: +49 (0) 7071-7952740 
Mon - Fri: 9.00 - 6.00 pm

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

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

Matthias Betz and the team from proof.de