Why proofing is required

In an (entirely theoretical) ideal world, our scanners, monitors and printers would be precisely calibrated, enabling us to scan, set up and print, confident that colour, contrast and brightness would be accurate.

All our equipment is rigorously and regularly calibrated using a state-of-the art colour management system, so why don't prints come out right first time?

Colour management systems are all designed around the premise that the original is a photograph, either a transparency or a print; and photographic dyes behave in a specific way, quite differently to the dyes used in watercolours, acrylics, oil paints, pastels, etc.

Each manufacturer of artists' materials will have their own formulae for 'standard' colours such as Prussian Blue, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Yellow etc., and these all behave differently.

To add to the confusion, artists will frequently mix paints from different makers, creating unique combinations of dyes... you can appreciate that no set of standards could possibly cope.

This is why the proofing process is required, and why it sometimes takes quite a while to achieve the desired result.