Behind the scenes | Print Proofing

Behind the Scenes

May 10

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Print proofing process at So Quiet

As a freelance illustrator, I really like running our small shop and being responsible for every single step of the designing, production, and print process. When I notice that most of our items are low in stock, I start my production scheduling to have enough time to get every artwork beautifully printed and well made.

Last month I get a lot of emails from our local professional printing lab I work with ( I like them!). We discussed how to prepare all my design files properly and some ideas for new products. At our So Quiet shop, we are currently offering about 50 products. I usually print up to 100 copies of each artwork at a time. But before printing such a large number of art prints and postcards, I always try to order print proofs ( high-quality samples) - this means that only one copy of each artwork is printed.

Print proofs are essential:

to make sure that the colors look as they should
to catch any small errors and mistakes
to see how new products look like before final printing
to make sure that the paper I have chosen is perfect for new artwork
to check that all tiny text is clear and legible
just for a quality control check

Here are some of April's print proofs. As you can see, a lot of designs are printed on one large sheet of paper, without cutting them off. At this stage, it allows for having the least amount of waste, and just checking the colors of samples before printing final products. All the proofs look very nice!

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Too much red tint

Unexpected printing issues can happen sometimes. Just let me show you our last year's failed print proofs. Below you can see that one postcard has excessive red tones. The reddish tint on the cards is especially noticeable when comparing two postcards, where the left one has great colors (that exactly match my original digital artwork).

Since time and experience taught me so much, I always check each card and art print with a critical eye during the entire print process. I need the colors to be the same according to my design. Thankfully, those too-much-red postcards were just print proofs. So I contacted the print lab and after discussing some most likely causes of the issue, we fixed errors, and our next print proofs ended up being just great.

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New arrivals unboxing

When our print proofing process is finished, I am ready to move along to the final production of a large order. All the images below show one of the most exciting parts of printing — unpacking so many new cards and prints. They came out exactly as I want!