How to soft proof colours on screen before you print

Turn on View > Proof colours in Layout by Zaweba and the screen shows your pages as they are expected to print, using the document's colour profiles, with paper simulation so whites take on the tone of the paper and the darkest blacks soften the way ink does. It is the quickest way to see, before anything goes to press, which bright screen colours will come back duller on paper.

Screens make colour with light and can show vivid greens and electric blues that ink on paper simply cannot reach. A soft proof is a preview of that gap. It won't replace a hard proof from the printer for a colour-critical job, but it stops most surprises.

Getting the settings right first

A soft proof is only as good as the profiles behind it. Edit > Colour settings is where you choose the working RGB and CMYK profiles, the rendering intent and the policies for what happens when a file arrives with a different profile. Those settings can be saved as a .zacs file, which is useful if a printer gives you their recommended set up or if you want every job in a series to match.

If your printer has told you which CMYK profile their press uses, that is the one to work towards. A document can have a profile assigned to it, or have its colours converted to a new profile, and the two are different things. Assigning changes how the existing numbers are interpreted, so the look shifts but the values stay. Converting keeps the look as close as possible and changes the numbers. When in doubt, ask the printer which they expect.

Proofing a document page by page

With the profiles set, choose View > Proof colours. The pages redraw as a simulation of the print. Paper simulation is the part that usually surprises people the first time: the bright white of the screen becomes the slightly warmer or greyer white of real paper, and the whole page looks a little flatter. That is not a fault. It is what the page will look like in the hand.

Work through the document with the proof on and look for the things that change most. Saturated RGB colours in pictures or swatches are the usual suspects. Brand colours deserve a careful look, since a logo that shifts noticeably is the first thing a client will notice. Dark areas can block up, losing shadow detail, and pale tints can vanish into the paper.

When you find a colour that suffers, decide whether to accept it or adjust it. The colour picker shows CMYK sliders and gives an out-of-gamut warning when a colour can't be reached in print, which helps you choose a near neighbour that will hold up. For pictures, a better conversion in the editor that made them often beats a quick change in the layout.

Going further with separations

The Separations preview shows each ink plate on its own, with overprint preview and an ink limit warning for total area coverage. Used alongside the soft proof, it tells you not just how colour looks but how it is built, which matters for rich blacks, spot inks and areas where too much ink would take too long to dry.

Getting a fair view

A soft proof on an uncalibrated screen in a bright room is only a rough guide. If colour matters, calibrate the monitor, keep the room lighting steady and look at proofs at the same brightness each time. Compare the soft proof with a printed sample from the same press when you can, and you will soon learn how far to trust what you see.

For everyday work, though, a minute with Proof colours turned on before you export is enough to catch the colour that would have disappointed you, and that minute is the whole point of the feature.