Thread: Comparing Soft Proofs

With Prints In practice, when final printed output is compared side by side with the screen, soft proofing to a display often appears to be only partially successful. This is because, assuming the display has been calibrated and profiled correctly, the image will be displayed with the chosen white point (for example 6,500K) at a certain brightness (often 80 cdjm2) while also being affected to some extent by the ambient illumination reflected from the screen. In contrast the hard copy proof will be illumi¬nated by the available light and this will almost certainly not be of the same colour temperature as the screen, nor will the proof reflect at the same brightness.



For the best correspondence between display soft proofs and final output the display should be set up alongside a viewing booth, with both the display and the booth illumi¬nated by the same fairly low level of neutral ambient light. The colour temperature, and brightness of the display must be adjusted to be as close as possible. If the booth has a brightness control this may be the easiest way to balance the brightness to that of the display.
The display colour temperature should be set to match that of the lamps in the booth;