Overview

Proofworks is designed for color and content proofing in prepress and for color proofing at the press. Unlike many other soft-proofing systems, Proofworks is flexible, fast and operator friendly for at-the-press use.

Proofworks can help printers of all sizes cut costs. For example, printers with 10 presses can use Proofworks to eliminate the $200,000 they typically spend annually on inkjet cartridges for internal, hard-copy proofs. As a result, Proofworks can pay for itself within the first year.

Press operators using Proofworks will find proofing less cumbersome, since they won’t have to search for hard-copy proofs and then simultaneously juggle them with press sheets. Instead, operators can check a sheet coming off the press against the easily-displayed Proofworks soft proof.

A ProofWorks system consists of a main ProofWorks server, optional satellite RIP servers, and one or more ProofWorks client stations. The ProofWorks server is built on the standard Rutherford PreOPS hardware platform. The ProofWorks client software can be installed on Rutherford OPS press-side computers and existing customer computers in pre-press, customer lounges, or wherever soft-proofing is needed.

Proofworks handles PDF, Postscript and TIF files. The system can integrate seamlessly into our IntelliSet^™ Color Preset System and AutoPilot^™ Closed-Loop Color-Control System.

Features

In the press room:

• The touch screen calls up proofs instantly so there’s no need to browse files or fiddle with a mouse or menu to locate the right job.
• Page layouts can be rotated automatically and properly rendered on the screen for ease of proofing. This feature also allows publications printers to confirm page impositions easily.
• Touch-screen controls are fast and responsive so operators can easily pan and zoom to desired areas of the proof.
• Proofworks images are displayed on calibratable screens of the user’s choice, typically with resolutions of 100 pixels per inch or more. Up to four screens can be clustered, if desired.

In pre-press:

• Content checking feature allows pre-press to check sheets, and optionally mark up the sheet for remakes
• Page layouts can be rotated automatically and properly rendered on the screen for ease of proofing. This feature also allows publications printers to confirm page impositions easily.
• Proofworks images are displayed on calibratable screens of the user’s choice, typically with resolutions of 100 pixels per inch or more. Up to four screens can be clustered, if desired.
• May be installed on any computer running Microsoft Windows XP or later. Touch screen control is optional.
• Highly configurable, with Python scripting engine to allow integration with customer databases and existing job management systems

Walk-through

1. Pre-press operator uses customer system to generate CMYK PDFs or TIFFs of the job sheets using embedded ICC profile or a default profile.
2. ProofWorks RIP Server processes sheets and stores image data into database.
3. Optional: Pre-press operator uses ProofWorks to review image, check content, and approve or reject the sheet. Once approved, sheet can be viewed press-side.
4. Optional: Other pre-press operators can pull up sheets to review markup by other operators.
5. Press operator uses user-friendly touch screen interface to select the job from list of approved jobs.
6. Optional: If the IntelliSet preset system is installed, ProofWorks will automatically load and display proofs during the preset.
7. Press operator can zoom and pan thumbnail image on touch screen, and actual color-corrected image is displayed on proofing monitor.
8. Optional: If AutoPilot closed-loop color control system is installed, ProofWorks will automatically display proof of sheet being scanned.