Testing the Softproofing Paradigm

The purpose of this article was to assess the suitability of softproofs as a surrogate for the final print in judging colourreproduction quality. A complex viewing apparatus was specially designed for this study to ensure that no cognitive cues were visible to observers and that the surround conditions for viewing softcopies and hardcopies were in very close agreement. Two experiments targeting judgements related to colour quality were carried out: one relating to colour accuracy, and one relating to colour preference. Each experiment was conducted using two workflows: one involving hardcopy stimuli, and the second involving softcopy simulations of those hardcopies. Overall, the general conclusion that can be drawn is that judgments made on the basis of softproofs are transferable to prints. While results based on pictorial images are very robust, the intrinsic characteristics of business graphics make them more prone to highlight the intrinsic differences and abilities of the reproduction devices of interest, and thus affect the judgements derived from such stimuli. Providing that the viewing conditions are very carefully equated and that a significant number of test images is used, softproofs are suitable as surrogates for the final print in judging the quality of colour reproduction.