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Artwork Proofing Software

anthony smith

anthony smith

New Member
I am looking for a software that will allow me to send proofs via pdf's but that have somewhat of a template design with company logo and all of the client/job info and small print.

Flexi simply does not have the proper type of features at least not to my knowledge. I know that we could simply design our own templates and just drag our artwork onto the template

but it makes it time consuming and not very practical.

Any tips, ideas or software to recommend?

Thanks,
 
WildWestDesigns

WildWestDesigns

Active Member
anthony smith said:
I am looking for a software that will allow me to send proofs via pdf's but that have somewhat of a template design with company logo and all of the client/job info and small print.

Flexi simply does not have the proper type of features at least not to my knowledge. I know that we could simply design our own templates and just drag our artwork onto the template

but it makes it time consuming and not very practical.

Any tips, ideas or software to recommend?

Thanks,
Click to expand...

I know it's not what you want to hear, but that's how I do it. Even if the feature is in the software, it's typically not quite what I want it to be at. The initial is the rough part, but once you get used to it, doesn't take that much time.

How is that new round about? Plenty of entertainment down there? Or was it in Huntland, can't remember.
 
anthony smith

anthony smith

New Member
VanderJ said:
If you have a subscription version, this is a new feature that comes free. If not, you could upgrade and get this function. See link below:

Flexi Artwork Approval Tool
Click to expand...

I do have the subscription version, but I do not like their proof feature, you cannot customize the output, and also sucks to say but 90% of my clients will not know how to use the integrated editing tools and comments etc and it would be a fiasco. A simple pdf output would be just great.

thank you though
 
anthony smith

anthony smith

New Member
visual800 said:
the last thing you need to do is send someone a pdf of your art. all customers should get jpgs. I love flexi but I export as an ai into illustrator and do all my finishing stuff there and THEN send them a jpq. I always save a copy in flexi and in illustrator

you are referring to attachments arent you if Im reading it right
Click to expand...


Yes you get the jest of what I was looking for, im just trying to avoid all the manual work of it. By pdf's I meant they would not be editable no matter what, and jpegs would be perfect as an output also.

Thank you for the attachments its a good starting point to have an idea if I decide on creating a template.
 
O

oksigns

New Member
If you have Adobe CC, you can invest a small amount of time to make a template and, from there, it is a breeze. A screen print shop near me does the very same thing. I take it one step further, and make the PDF editable so production initiates the proof creation and someone else would take the PDF, complete it and double check for accuracy before sending off to the customer.

Really, same amount of time invested if you were in this "proofing" software doing the same thing. Only difference would be your initial invested time doing it.

Edit: to clarify, our shop has production producing the proof, as a flat low quality raster that is watermarked. The next person inline(usually who is in charge of the account) completes the PDF with client information and checks attached artwork for accuracy and then sends it out. The proof is just rolled in to the normal production cost.
 
James Burke

James Burke

Being a grandpa is more fun than working
We use AI CS6 and we have 25 various sized art boards on each customer template. One art board is for full scale mockups and the others are various sizes for printing / plotting and for artwork approvals. All we do is drag our artwork to a new art board and output to a secured .pdf. Each art board is numbered for easy output reference.

Everything is done from ONE file...there is absolutely no juggling around with a half-dozen open files.

(I wiped all the art boards clean for the screen shot, but we have a standard artwork approval form already typed up and a watermarked logo as well)



JB
 

Attachments

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eahicks

eahicks

Magna Cum Laude - School of Hard Knocks
Flexi can do all this automatically. No cloud required. Apply your template, send email as JPG or PDF. SOP here.
You have to create your template first, obviously. We have a vertical oriented one and horizontal one.
 
B

bannertime

Active Member
Yeah, I'd have to second the Flexi Approval Tool. I hate it with a passion, but it keeps us moving. I've used it for about 600 jobs. Sometimes the customer will call and say something doesn't work on their phone, so I will either manually send them the artwork or they'll reply to the email. I'll save the email and manually mark the job completed.

They are still building it, it's gotten like 30% better than when it was first released.

I've looked into proofing tools, but they are all attached to CMS subscriptions. There are also online cloud proofing solutions, but they are geared towards design firms.
 
SightLine

SightLine

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I might look into the Flexi approval tool again. Tried it when they first came out with it and did not much like it then.

Anyways we use a basic Illustrator file that we open and then drop the art into, then scale it to fit nice, type whatever we might want to type, then just use the "save for web" feature of Illustrator and save it out as a 2400 pixel wide medium quality jpg. Works great, customer cannot "easily" just take the raw art since its just a simple flat jpg. I do like the idea of the Flexi tool though since they can just click to approve and we get notified.

The catch for us though - we don't actually design anything in Flexi so its really just another step again since we have to first open the artwork in Flexi just to use the approval tool. Granted, if they approve it then we are good and can just go with it but if not then back to Illustrator or Photoshop, make changes, save again, open in Flexi again, rinse and repeat....
 
B

bannertime

Active Member
SightLine said:
The catch for us though - we don't actually design anything in Flexi so its really just another step again since we have to first open the artwork in Flexi just to use the approval tool. Granted, if they approve it then we are good and can just go with it but if not then back to Illustrator or Photoshop, make changes, save again, open in Flexi again, rinse and repeat....
Click to expand...

Ah, yeah. I use Flexi for a good majority of my jobs. Mostly for cut vinyl or cheap 1-2 color printed banners. Even some complicated stuff I'll design in Flexi now. All my small format stuff is in Illustrator and Photoshop. It's not too complicated to bring into Flexi since it'll open almost anything. I Import the original AI or PSD file into a 8.5x11 "canvas" on Flexi and then scale the image down to fit inside it. I'll add whatever text I need and submit it. Takes about 40 seconds.
 
bob

bob

It's better to have two hands than one glove.
Let's see if I have this right: You want to send a client an image of the work you propose along with some text, either boilerplate or job specific, and you're searching for some automated solution? Is that about right?

If so, you and everyone else responding with any solution other than just do it would appear to be representatives of the helpless generation. It's nothing to do what you seem to be describing, just put whatever you need together and get on with what passes for your life.
 
myront

myront

Dammit, make it faster!!
You can do this in Corel the same as others have suggested. I used a pre-designed "proof template".
I created a macro to take my selection and with one icon click it would drop it onto my template. It would then automatically fill in the name of the file, the current date, and clients name. Then I'd select all and hit another macro to send as a password protected pdf. Worked great.
 
SightLine

SightLine

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myront said:
You can do this in Corel the same as others have suggested. I used a pre-designed "proof template".
I created a macro to take my selection and with one icon click it would drop it onto my template. It would then automatically fill in the name of the file, the current date, and clients name. Then I'd select all and hit another macro to send as a password protected pdf. Worked great.
Click to expand...

Password protecting PDF's generally is not something I'd advise. Especially if its a password you commonly use.... There are lots of tools online to break into protected/secure PDF files and many programs that can work with PDF files simply ignore the security. Flexi is a good example..... we sometimes need to find a corporate logo and its often quicker to just yank it from a PDF from the corporates website then to try and hunt down the right person to get it from. When the PDF is secured and Illustrator will not open it, just open it in Flexi instead, then export it as an Illustrator file. :rock-n-roll:
 
myront

myront

Dammit, make it faster!!
SightLine said:
Password protecting PDF's generally is not something I'd advise. Especially if its a password you commonly use.... There are lots of tools online to break into protected/secure PDF files and many programs that can work with PDF files simply ignore the security. Flexi is a good example..... we sometimes need to find a corporate logo and its often quicker to just yank it from a PDF from the corporates website then to try and hunt down the right person to get it from. When the PDF is secured and Illustrator will not open it, just open it in Flexi instead, then export it as an Illustrator file. :rock-n-roll:
Click to expand...

Yeah, you're dead on. That's why I quit using that method. I could, however, alter the macro to convert selected to png then place on the proof template and make the pdf from that and also skip the password protection.

I get logos using the same method too.
 
hcardwell93

hcardwell93

New Member
I have a template for Illustrator. When I'm done with the artwork I copy it to the template, resize and save it as a proof. It takes me less than 2 minutes using this method. Even as a one man band I don't feel overwhelmed with time and I feel better sending a professional looking proof to customers.
 
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