proofSIGN

Colour management is one of those chores that’s never exciting but needs to be done, so any tool that promises to make final colour checks easier will always be welcome. proofSIGN is a software add-on for Gretag Macbeth’s Eye- One colorimeter that automates the final colour calibration stage.

In use, it’s really very simple – print out a test chart, plug-in the Eye-One, calibrate it using its built-in white tile, and then slide the Eye- One over two test bars. To make this easy you’ll need the latest plastic holder and guide from Eye-One. Once the data has been collected, proofSIGN displays a pass or fail, depending on whether or not the proof is within ISO 12647-2 limits.

proofSIGN also prints a summary report PDF and label that can be included with a project, although this doesn’t include your contact details, which we think would be useful.

Straight out of the box, proofSIGN includes standard ISO targets for coated paper, newspaper26v4, uncoated and webcoated papers. We tested proofSIGN with an Epson 7800 printing on coated paper, and everything worked well. It passed the correct ISO coated paper profile and failed a different target. There wasn’t time to set up a more stringent test by introducing a deliberate error into a profile, but because accurate ΔE values for each colour are part of the test process, there’s no reason to assume that it won’t work.

But if you’re using an Eye-One to calibrate a printer already, why go through another stage? Profiling on its own won’t tell you what your printer is doing after it has been profiled; proofSIGN tests if your calibration is working correctly.

Adding this extra stage also provides some security against user error: proofSIGN should catch a misprofiled project at the final stage. It’s useful to be able to provide a sign-off form and label for management reasons, and a list of colour offsets and errors.

While the overall verdict is mostly good, proofSIGN isn’t entirely bulletproof. In our first attempt to use it we didn’t quite follow the instructions, and our Mac crashed. The software also assumes your target machine has internet access.

Other than that there’s little to dislike. Bodoni can supply the package on its own, or as part of a package that includes a label printer if you don’t own an Eye-One.