A3 Proof colour-accurate, tiered pricing from € 8.25

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. A colour-accurate proof must, according to Media Standard offset printing, 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 highlight 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 print shop or agency has the measuring capabilities to verify a media wedge on site, we offer to provide the media wedge directly with a test report. This test report certifies that the media wedge and thus the proof is within the 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 per order overall (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 overall, please select it as a separate item and place it separately in 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 to the DIN A3 format and for the two in DIN A2 format two files with one page each. If we should create multiple copies of one, please let us know this 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 looks like for an A4 proof before uploading.

 

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 your order by pressing the "UPLOADS READY, COMPLETE ORDER" button.

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

Even after order completion, you can view your order at any time, but of course not modify it.

If your data is faulty during data checking, 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 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 parcel: € 4.70  UPS Express Saver: € 13.- (delivery by end of business day) UPS Express before 12:00: € 15.- UPS Express before 10:30: € 25.- DHL / FedEX Express before 9:00: € 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: € 15.- UPS Express before 10:30: € 25.- DHL / FedEX Express before 9:00: € 75.- DHL Express with Saturday delivery: € 49.-
The standard delivery time for shipments within Germany is 1 to 4 working days*, longer in exceptional cases. Express shipments are usually delivered the next working day*. Orders with data receipt by 4 PM are dispatched the same working day*. Orders with data receipt after 4 PM are dispatched the next working day*. An express delivery before 9 AM 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 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 working days*, longer in exceptional cases. Express shipments to major European economic centres are usually delivered the next working day*, but may also have considerably longer delivery times.
Packaging and shipping, non-EU Europe and North America:
Up to DIN A4+ format:	From DIN A3 format:
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 working days*, sometimes considerably longer. We have seen delivery times of 6 weeks to New York. Therefore, especially when shipping to the USA where prompt delivery is required, please select express shipping. Express shipments are delivered the next or second working day*, but sometimes not for several days.
Packaging and shipping rest of world
Up to DIN A4+ format:	From DIN A3 format:
DHL small parcel international: € 10.- UPS Express: € 55.-	Parcel or small parcel DHL/UPS: € 25.- UPS Express: € 75.-
The standard delivery time for shipments worldwide is up to 15 working days*, longer in exceptional cases up to several weeks. We ship here by post priority registered mail or DHL parcel international. Therefore, especially when shipping where prompt delivery is required, please select express shipping. Express shipments are usually delivered within four working days*, sometimes longer in exceptional cases. Island locations and remote regions in the destination countries can significantly delay delivery.
The shipping zones are regulated differently by Deutsche Post, DHL and partly. To determine your exact price, please log in and place the required items in your shopping cart. After entering your 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 significantly higher shipping costs. This can be the case for bulky and large shipments such as roll-ups or very large proofs, but also sometimes for orders to remote regions or special economic centres: Example Croatia: Express shipping to a Croatian island costs four times as much as shipping to Zagreb. We therefore have to subsequently calculate higher shipping costs in some cases than those shown in the shop, as we can only consider the country but not the region during shipping cost calculation. However, we will always inform you of any additional costs before shipping.  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 various states (Wikipedia). No shipping and no delivery on public holidays.
Country allocation for shipping by post or DHL / UPS standard You will find the country allocations for shipping detailed here.

To proof prices

 

Customers usually 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 used outside Europe) and PDF/X-3 are traditionally the print-optimised PDF files. These ISO standards ensure, for example, that fonts and images are embedded. They are recognised and desired as standard for print data exchange by most print shops. 

PDF/X-4 is the new print standard for PDF files. Unlike PDF/X-3, PDF/X-4 files can contain transparencies in the file. PDF/X-3 was 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 is increasingly being requested by print shops because 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 to be PDF/X-ready certified for proof output of PDF/X-4 data and has been a member of PDF/X-ready for several years. 

For anyone who wants accurate information about the advantages and disadvantages of each format, we recommend the pages of PDF/X-ready. Here you will find all information, guides for PDF creation and Acrobat creation and Acrobat test profiles for PDF/X-4 files. 

PDF/X-ready guide to 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

A proof is for us absolute colour accuracy. It is therefore important that you know exactly how we handle colours in your submitted files in detail when proofing. 

CMYK colours

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

Example: You provide 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 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 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 so, 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, thus converting all your RGB data directly during proofing according to your designations from RGB to CMYK. If your images are in Device RGB, you will receive a "data error" email from us with a note because we cannot reliably interpret your RGB data. If your images are correctly marked but your output colour space does not match the ordered proof output colour space, you will also receive a "data error" email.

Example: You provide 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 trigger a "data error" email because we would now have to "override" your output colour space stored in the PDF, and thus would have to perform colour transformations that are not clearly traceable for you.

If you do not provide us with PDFs but pure TIFFs or JPEGs in RGB profiles, we trigger a "data error" 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 colourimetrically in your ordered output colour space, please write to us in the "Notes for your order" field, which you will find during the order process. 

For photo prints in RGB colour spaces, we recommend our Fineart prints, which are perfectly suited for this. Pure RGB output is not really provided in proofing. 

Spot colours

We can simulate all spot colours very well - regardless of whether PANTONE, HKS, Toyo or custom, proprietary 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. As long as your spot colours are correctly named like "PANTONE 123 C" or "HKS 15 N" we take 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 image printing standards like ISOCoatedV2, we trigger a "data error" email. We can also simulate PANTONE "U" colours on a proof for image printing paper, but an offset print shop could not print it because the 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 you a "data error" email because we also 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: With spot colours, we only have the respective solid, i.e. the 100% spot colour area stored in the proofing system. A 50% area of PANTONE 123 C or HKS 15 N would be calculated by the proofing software because we do not have real, measured colour data for the 50% value in our system. These values are very intelligently calculated by the proofing software, but are nonetheless only a clever calculation and not a simulation based on a metrologically recorded reference. The same applies when, for example, a spot colour is semi-transparently overprinted by another spot colour or by a CMYK image. 

Greyscale

We treat greyscale in PDF files as if they were on the black channel of the ordered proof output colour space. A 50% grey is output as 0/0/0/50 in CMYK; this applies to images in Device Grey as well as all other greyscale data in PDF files. Even if you do not provide us with PDFs but pure TIFFs or JPEGs in greyscale, we would proceed in such a way 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 colourimetrically in your ordered output colour space, please write to us in the "Notes for 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 "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 image printing papers we use the Gravure proof Paper from EFI with 245gsm. It feels very high-quality and is also perfect for presentations with customers.
The 4245 is a coated universally usable semi-matte and wipe-resistant paper. This proof paper, specially developed for offset and gravure printing, is compatible with paper types 1 and 2 of ISO 12647-2 and comes with almost no paper simulation for these papers. The EFI 4245 is 4245 GRACoL/SWOP #3 certified and for the gravure area (S1 and S2) and for the offset printing area (PT3) the paper is also certified by FOGRA. 
 

    EFI Gravure proof Paper 4245 Semimatte:    

• Semimatte coated paper
• Very large colour gamut
• One-sided printable
• Very good fade resistance
• Very low optical brightener content
• Weight: 245 gsm
• Thickness: 260μ
• Opacity: 96%
• L*a*b paper white: 94.8 / 0.3 / -1.5

For those who need a proof for natural papers, we offer a proof on matt EFI 9120XF 120gsm paper. This proof paper contains virtually no optical brighteners. The special colouration and high L value are very suitable for the simulation of matt printed materials. It is perfect for simulating natural papers as it is very similar in feel and thickness to writing paper.
 

    EFI proof Paper 9120XF Matt

• Large colour gamut
• Slightly foldable
• Low optical brightener content
• Weight: 120 gsm
• Thickness: 150μ
• Opacity: 95%
• Gloss: 6%
• L*a*b paper white: 96.7 / 0.2 / -2.4

The ECI (European Colour Initiative) states in their practical recommendation "Uncoated":
"Another special feature to note when proofing for printing on uncoated paper: the semimatte proof paper usually used for "Coated" also results in poor visual proof-to-print correspondence even with very good metrological test results of media wedge evaluation. The use of uncoated proof paper prepared for use on proof printers provides the best possible metrological correspondence with the target values from the characterisation file and also ensures the best possible visual correspondence 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 Semimatte
For those who need a proof for image printing papers with optical brighteners, we offer a proof  on semimatte EFI 8245 OBA semimatte with 245 gsm paper. The EFI proof Paper 8245OBA Semimatte was specially developed for proofing white and brightened, coated publication papers. The white point of this semimatte paper is very close to the values of the FOGRA51 profile and thus enables proofing to FOGRA51 with almost no paper white simulation. It is also well suited for simulating 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 those who need a proof for natural papers with optical brighteners, we offer a proof on matt EFI 7175 OBA matt with 175gsm paper. The EFI proof Paper 8175OBA Matt was specially developed for proofing uncoated, heavily brightened publication 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 any 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 create the PDF file?
• How quickly can you ship it?
• ...?

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 about
You will also find a wealth of knowledge about proofing, digital proofs, online proofs and colour proofs directly here: proof.de

Matthias Betz and the team at proof.de