What is a Press Check and When is It Needed

A press check is an on-site, last-chance proofing step for the main purpose of achieving color accuracy. The press is literally set up and ready to run with your project but, before it does, the press operator brings out a proof on the actual paper right off the press.

A press check occurs only after you have given final sign-off on your project. The press check is really not the stage to be proofreading, since making corrections would incur costs for additional desktop time, plates, and set-up. However, sometimes the benefits and costs of catching a significant error on press can outweigh the expense of having to reprint a project.

Press checks are not as common nowadays, since such technological advancements as PDF proofs, Epson color proofs, and calibrated monitors have dramatically improved the accuracy and speed of prepress proofing over the years.

However, certain projects benefit from that one last opportunity to ensure color comes as close as possible to what you are seeking. A few examples of such cases include (1) matching corporate colors, (2) having large areas of solid color, and (3) having significant amounts of flesh tone to keep balanced and realistic.

In addition to color, several other items to include in your inspection are: registration (make sure the bleeds are pulled); hickeys (watch for unintentional spots or marks); paper (doublecheck that it is the right color, weight, and finish); content (look for any broken type, and make sure no text, photos, or other graphic elements are missing ); and folds (rule out and fold to size to ensure correct positioning and finish size).

Factors that can influence results on press include paper stock and ink colors. Some paper stock can be more challenging to achieve the desired color due to brightness, smoothness, weight, and opacity. And some colors are more easily reproduced on press than others. (Read more about how color looks on press versus on your monitor in our Fall 2008 newsletter archived online.)

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