Shoutout to the guy who told me to try fake proofs before sending a real print run

I hit a wall with a big client order a few weeks back, 500 t-shirts with a 4 color process design. My normal approach was to just send the art file to the printer and hope for the best, which usually meant some color shift or misregistration costing me reprints. So I tried his trick: I mocked up a cheap digital proof on my home inkjet and compared it to the screen print sample side by side. Turned out my gradients were way too dark and I fixed them before the real run started. Saved me about $300 in wasted shirts and got the client happy on the first delivery. Has anyone else messed with this kind of fake proof method or do you just trust the printer's proof every time?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_joel1d ago

Messed around with fake proofs for a while but stopped when I realized my home printer is way more calibrated than the screen printer's old Epson. Did a whole run of hoodies once where the proof looked perfect but the actual print came out looking like a faded thrift store find. Turns out the printer had their screens burned way too hot and my fake proof just made me more confident in the wrong direction. Now I just ask for a physical strike off and wait the extra day.

emeryn831d ago

Ha! Yeah, I learned that same lesson the hard way. I spent an afternoon tweaking a digital mockup until it looked perfect on my monitor, only to get a test print back that looked like it had been through the wash about 40 times. Now I just tell myself, hey, if I'm too lazy to wait for a real proof, I deserve whatever faded mess shows up.