Caralan Help - ONLINE PROOFING

Proof your jobs through our system: - This online proofing system allows you to produce your own proofs online using our pre-press software.

What do I need?: - You need a working email address and to be able to produce some form of postscript file from your artwork. Examples of postscript files are :- EPS (encapsulated postscript), PDF (portable document format ie Adobe Acrobat) and PS (postscript).

How does it work?: - You create a postscript file from your computer artwork. You then upload this file onto our system. It is then checked and ripped to produce a CMYK JPEG. A link to this JPEG is then returned to you by email. You can then download or view this link when it is convenient to you.

How accurate are these proofs? - Since the proofs are prepared from the same output stream used for print data there should be no content errors - font data, overprint and transparency are all preserved. You are looking at a rendered down version of the actual data used to print your job. However, your job is being taken and processed in isolation which means any errors that are introduced during our imposition stage will not be evident. Imposition errors are not normally your responsibility. The other main source of inaccuracy is colour matching of non-cmyk jobs. If you proof a postscript file that contains non-cmyk objects they will be automatically converted to cmyk for the purpose of this proof using our base colour tables. When we receive a job containing non-cmyk objects we will normally control the conversion process manually and will very probably use other systems and colour tables to get optimum results. In short, if you provide a completely cmyk proof file you will get an accurate reading of what will be produced on our printing plates prior to dot gain. Any non-cmyk objects will NOT produce a colour accurate representation. (single plane 8bit and 12bit greyscale is classed as cmyk). This means that if you are using a program like Publisher, Serif Pageplus or MSWord you will not see colour accuracy since they are only capable of producing RGB composite output and consequently cannot integrate directly into our composite CMYK workflow without conversion. Online proofs are contone, ie unscreened. When a job is printed the image data is converted to a dot screen pattern. Screening can introduce problems not apparent on your online proof by clashing with regular screen type patterns already in your job. This is mostly a possibility if your job includes scans taken from originals that are themselves screened, that is anything already printed. If your scan preserves the original screening it may cause interference when our screening is applied.

File Types: - Your uploaded file must be of the correct type ie. 'myfile.pdf' or 'myfile.eps or 'myfile.ps'.

PS Level: - We recommend using postscript level 3 with jpeg compression to create your postscript file. This will produce the most compact file possible and as the most modern postscript incarnation it will have better compatability and will process faster.

Do I have to proof my jobs myself?: - No, we will be happy to produce a final proof for you but only after you have ordered your job and made a payment. However, proofing your work yourself before sending us your order does have advantages. You can do it at any time that is convenient to you and you can do it quicker. You can proof your job and rework your artwork as often as you like as your job develops whereas we would expect to be producing a final proof prior to print and if you request more than two proofs per job we will start charging you. When you do send your job it is likely to pass through our system quicker since there should be no artwork hold-ups.

How long do you keep proofs?: - Usually about ten days after which our housekeeping software will remove them and your link will no longer work.

How long does it take to produce a proof?: - This depends on the complexity of your postscript file and our rip server workload but usually 10 minutes or less but it could be upto an hour.

I uploaded my file but didn't get a proof: - Sometimes the system can fail for various reasons. It could be offline for maintenance (you should see notification of this if you go to our 'Help & Information' menu view the 'System Status' information bar), it could be tied up with a huge job or there could be a fault. However the most likely reason is a problem in your file. Sometimes files will not process because there is a postscript error - make sure you sent a postscript file. You can check if the system is working by clicking the 'System Check' link. This will proof a standard postscript test page and send you a link. If you can then view this test page then the system is working and the problem is most likely with your file. Is your file larger than our 50Mb limit?
Whatever the problem, if you leave our proofing page open in your browser you should get either a notification that your file has been received or an error message. If this does not happen then either we are completely offline or we did not receive your upload. Try uploading a small non-postscript file and you should receive an error message saying that your file is not a postscript file. If you can successfully upload files onto our proof system and you receive neither an error message nor a proof please let us know and we will look into it.

System Check: - If you think there may be a problem with the system press this. A small postscript test page will be processed and a link returned to you. If you can view the test page then the system is online and working. This means that any errors are more likely to be at your end than ours

Interpret Your Proof: - This menu option takes you to a page explaining what to look for in your proof. It covers various common errors and how to spot them.

About Proofing: - This menu option takes you to a page with general information covering what proofing is and why we all need it