What's proof check guarantee?

Before we can print any job, you’ve got to approve, or ‘proof’ it – this is really important to make sure what’s printed is exactly what you want. It’s scary approving proof when it is down to you to check for typos, colours, contact details, grammar, artwork, placement, size, resolution, brand guidelines. It is a lot of pressure and responsibility for you - especially if you are not used to doing this.  We are the only print and promotional company in the UK that offer a proof check guarantee. We’re on your side to get it right. The responsibility is ours too, to make sure your merchandise is proofed up properly, correctly and definitely without typos. This can be a big mistake when printing merchandise and we ensure this doesn't happen. Before we can print any job, you’ve got to approve the proof. Approving proof basically means that it's in the final stage before production, so we have to ensure what's on the design is exactly what you want printing.

How to check your final proofs properly.

Here is a step by step on how to create the best merchandise for your campaigns, we've listed all the important information on what you need to check when you get your final proof.

Accuracy on specs.

Product specifications, colours, size, packaging, print areas are really important when it comes to proofing. We will compare your PDF proof to your artwork file to make sure nothing is missing. We will always zoom into all the details and scan from top left all the way down to make sure everything is correct, on-brand and has no spelling mistakes either. It is your job to also do this and check there are no mistakes because once it's printed there's no going back.

Size and bleeds.

It's important to check the size of the products and the size of the branding areas and to make sure it all follows your brand identity and brand guidelines exactly. If your products are printed full-colour right to the edge then we will also check that there are no white edges where colour should bleed off. We both also need to ensure that the artwork and the logo are legible and is positioned in the best place for maximum impact, some logos have a minimum size so ensuring that it is done too will make sure your logo is printed correctly.

Fonts.

When checking your proofs it's important to also check that all fonts appear as they should and on brand. If you use the wrong font, it could have less impact as people don't recognise your brand with the specific font on the merchandise. You'll normally find fonts in style guides or brand guidelines so you can ensure they are correct and completely on brand, so you aren't making any mistakes. As a team, we will always check this or ask you what your font is so that this doesn't get missed out.

Content and images.

It's important to use high res images if you're printing an image onto your merchandise, if it's printed at a high resolution it will make the image super crisp and look better than a pixelated image. It's also important to add marketing messages such as your contact name, address, phone and website address. This info tends to get overlooked by designers and clients but is super important if you want your clients to be diverted somewhere.

Pantones and colours.

Pantones and colours are normally used on merchandise so that it's on brand and people can easily recognize your brand based on the colours used in the merchandise. These are printed to the correct pantones and as per the brand guidelines, you can normally find colours and pantones in style guides and brand guidelines. We will also check this on our side when creating visuals and designs for your merchandise, you will normally find the colour code on the proof to cross-check against your branding.

Final check.

The final check is where we will go through it together or make changes until it is all on brand as we would say in the office. If your business has a brand manager we'll normally speak to them directly to ensure that nothing is missed off and confirm it on your side. This is another way to make sure your merchandise is completely on brand and matches your business as best as it can. If you're unsure of whether your merchandise is on brand, just talk to us and we'll make sure that it's on-brand for you.

Contact us.

If you'd like to learn more about how we check proofs or would like us to check your artwork, then contact us on email at sales@extravaganza.uk.com or give the team a call on 0116 285 2417 and they'll be more than happy to help.