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Nick Syrax
07-13-2011, 11:02 AM
You guys have been AWESOME so far so I figured this would be the best place to ask this. When doing an acrylic proof for a customer that has a photo element and they keep having changes, how do you suggest I proof it to them? I just had a customer that I used a whole 12x24 sheet of 1/4" acrylic just doing proofs. Is there an easier way to do it? Because as you know, the EPS out of EngraverPro looks awful on screen. Would a paper proof suffice or maybe on transparencies? TIA!!!

Mike Null
07-13-2011, 11:17 AM
Nick

I do jpeg proofs which I submit by email. What you are talking about sounds like a sample rather than a proof. If they want a sample they are charged for a sample and set up. They get one proof for changes. If they want changes in a second proof there is a charge.

Martin Boekers
07-13-2011, 2:13 PM
Not a solution right now, but if you continue with te photo work consider a software such as Photo Grav
or another one that provides a "Soft Proof".

As you are discovering doing photos may not seem to be the mobney maker many claim. Some do make it work,
but it takes much deciaction, time and refining your technique.

Nick Syrax
07-13-2011, 4:45 PM
Thanks for the suggestions! This place rules!

Joe Pelonio
07-13-2011, 8:49 PM
In addition to charging for samples, I save all my scraps to minimize material cost. You can do a smaller version of the item as a sample, then another small one with a detailed portion of the graphic at actual size so they can approve it.

Jeff Belany
07-14-2011, 9:09 PM
I create a PDF from X4. Works great (most of the time) I usually don't make many samples unless it's for a good customer or I am pretty certain it is going to be a substantial job. Even then I do all the proofing with PDF's and make a sample once they have the layout pretty much settled.

Jeff in northern Wisconsin

Bill Cunningham
07-14-2011, 9:38 PM
You can make a proof from the actual engraving file.. They look bad on screen because of the 2 bit resolution But the nice thing is you can super imposed the engraving file over a product, by making the background clear. Then export it to a 300 dpi bitmap and reload it into photopaint, resample to 75 dpi and resize to fit the screen, and save it as a .jpg for attachment to emails. The resampling makes your engraving file overlaid on the part correctly visible. For some reason, exporting it as a 75 dpi .jpg directly from CorelDraw ends up with a much lower quality image. Using this method and overlaying your engraving file on the part, your showing your customer a true mockup of the job, and not a photograv simulation on what ever substrate they have in their system.. For this reason on quick jobs, I have replaced the cherry P.G. image with a scan of Baltic Birch to show the sim on BB rather than on their version of cherrywood.. This gives me the sim file image on BB directly from photograv.