Face it, proofing sucks. Proof-it-Online attempts to make the proofing process suck…. less. After 2 years of using this proof system, here is my review:

Just to give you some history here, my husband and I publish our own magazine and are also independent graphic artists. With these two lines of work comes the very real need to tame the proofing process. One of the biggest challenges, especially as a magazine publisher has been to keep track of hundreds of proofs under tight deadlines.

In the past we’ve used everything from FTP’ing PDFs to emailing each client individually with a PDF attachment of their ad. Each approach had its benefits and drawbacks. With FTP I was able to quickly batch upload PDFs, but still had to have an assistant email each and every client with a link to the PDF or I would have frustrated clients wading through 100+ PDFs to find theirs on the server. With the PDF proof email method, PDFs would get stuck or never make it to the destination and I had no real way of knowing whether or not the client ever saw a proof or not; and needless to say, this is NOT something you need or want to deal with under the pressure of a print deadline.

Then came Proof-it-Online – There is literally nothing else like it.

I tested out Proof-it-Online and knew right away that it was miles ahead of what I was doing and was sold without even being sold to. The system takes your PDF proofs and converts them to be viewable in their flash-based application. Right away I saw some solutions to the problems I was having:

• Keeping track of changes for each advertiser on a series of proofs and revisions: Proof-it-Online solves this problem by keeping proofs in a series and also allowing several people to “mark up” a proof separately yet still keeping all mark-ups in one place so it’s organized.
• Knowing whether or not a proof has been looked at: Proof-it-Online has a dynamic system that gives you a status change indicator showing you whether or not the proof was even opened. You can also send reminder emails to those that haven’t opened a proof right in the same screen.
• Proof approval: Clients “virtually signed” their approval by agreeing to a set of pre-defined terms in order to return their proof to us whether changes were needed or not. The system requires a name to login and see a proof.
• Client refunds and credits: Rarely could a client say to me “I never saw a proof” which was an age old excuse and a past way to get a credit. In most cases, I was able to login and see who saw the proof and when they looked at it. I could also print the report and send it to them. Of course no one likes to be told they are wrong, so that always has to be handles with care. (Too bad Proof-it-Online couldn’t answer these calls for me – haha)
• Sending proofs as an outsourced graphic artist: Proof-it-Online has a process called team track which allows proofs to go from designer to sales rep to client and back all while recording the proof’s movement in the process.
• Blocking proofs from being downloaded for use in competing magazines: The proof system allowed me to block the download function so that our hard work wasn’t being plagiarized by other publications. This was a major issue with the FTP and email methods of proofing.
• Support: Ok I admit that I can be a spaz under pressure and the last thing I need is a proof that won’t show up right on a client’s screen or that’s somehow not making it to its destination. Jeff at Proof-it-Online came to the rescue many times for myself and my clients. His instructions are always very detailed and explained in a way that even a total noob could figure out.

After my long term use of the Proof-it-Online system, there are of course some things that I wish were improved upon:

• Testing: There are times I felt like I was beta testing the proof system. It seems like changes were made to the proof system that were not thoroughly tested. Some mornings I would login and everything would appear the same, but proofs would disappear or get locked and become unaccessable.
• Real time tracking of views: If a person logs in and doesn’t actually follow through on the whole process and complete a review to close it out, the system will not tell you who logged in to look at it, it will remain in limbo with a status of “in review”.
• Handling of PDFs with gradients: Admittedly I hate Quark, but am forced to use it for some of my clients. Any design that includes a gradient in Quark gets fubar’d in the proof view. This is undoubtedly a problem that happens between the Quark PDF conversion and the conversion to flash in Proof-it-Online.
• Billing: They bill quarterly and my dealings with their billing department have been anything but peachy. The woman there seems to be facing a constant bout with PMS. Don’t even think about asking for a refund if you decide to cancel for some reason. If you ask me, billing quarterly and in advance is a bad idea and bound to cause problems. Not giving client’s a refund for services they won’t be using is just unethical. And DO NOT refer me to some schlocky “terms and conditions” agreement that is miles long and tell me that I agreed to it.

All in all – Proof-it-Online is a lifesaver on many levels. I can tell you that after using it for about a year, I was offered a contract with another client and the terms were that I use their old school proofing method. I hesitantly agreed to test it out and because all my other clients were using the Proof-it-Online system I knew right away that I didn’t want to go back to using the old FTP/email method again. I ended up turning down that contract because it was at that point very clear that the Proof-it-Online system made my life many times easier and I didn’t want the massive headache caused by lost proofs and changes again.

Proof-it-Online Quick Review:

Purchased at Proofitonline.com – Package that cost $450 per quarter – billed in advance. Package included the team-track option.

Proof-it-Online Benefits:

• Far more organized proof process versus PDF emailing/FTP
• Ability to track proof approvals and markups
• Proof versioning stored in a proof series for each proof
• Ability to disallow printing/PDF download
• Digital signatures and time-stamps when proofs are reviewed
• Automated emails to clients to notify them that a proof is available
• Ability to mark-up changes directly on the proof

Proof-it-Online Drawbacks:

• Bugs – I know this is inevitable, however they might want to test a bit more before release
• Gradient handling is a little iffy on vector based objects
• Not much control for third parties in the team track scenario
• No control over tools that users can or cannot use (some are more trouble than they are worth)
• Billing by the quarter in advance – should be self explanatory why this is not a good idea
• Price for team-track may be prohibitive if you are just an independent graphic artist

The Mrs. gives Proof-it-Online a 4/5
Proof-it-Online has made the dreaded process of proofing much easier on many levels. Most notably is the ease of proof organization with their system vs. email and/or FTP. They have a great product with great support. I couldn’t give it a 5 because it’s not perfect in my eyes, but keep in mind that they are innovators in this area and at some point this product could certainly get pretty darn close to perfect. Also the few times I have dealt with their billing process, whether for myself or others, I was not satisfied with the treatment I received and each time I felt that I (or my client) was wronged.

Now I can take my fine-tuned station with me with the Slacker G2 Personal Radio Player – Yesss!

So I’m sitting in the home office, doing some work and I think to myself – “this place needs some music”. The problem I have is not only that I wanted music, I wanted my unique genres and artists, I wanted an online source – not a bunch of mp3s I’ve gotta make playlists for, I wanted to be able to use it on both my mac or my PC, I wanted it all.

Slacker.com is what I found. I’ve seen the light! Well, for the most part.

Here’s the deal, slacker.com allows users to sign-up for an account for free. Free accounts in the beginning were only limited by # of skips a user had to cycle through music. Quick tip: If you use the service and a song comes on that you hate, don’t use a skip, use the BAN* song feature. It’ll save your skips for songs you might not want to hear right now, but possibly later. Now Free accounts also get to listen to crappy commercials between songs. It doesn’t happen often, every 25 or so songs, but it’s still a bummer.

This is what I did, I signed up, created a few stations for my moods. I have a station for my speedmetal/industrial mood & another for my country mood. Ok, no I don’t – but if I wanted to I could. The service is founded on the principal of users choosing the music they like and listening to it. Simple. With every account Free or Paid, you’re able to ban artists, mark favorites, adjust settings like artist discovery or “just hits”, giving every user lots of control over their station.

More tips: (if you signup)

• If you like a song, use the favorite button to tell slacker.com, the favorites help not only in the frequency for that song, but also the artist, genre and similar bands out there slacker will recommend to you in the artist discovery section.

• Make your own station, listening to the presets is fine… but with the tools all accounts get you’re able to tell slacker exactly what artists you like, making the station truly your own.

• Share! Once you’re confident in your artist selection and ratings (something established over time) let others hear your station and share it through slacker.

• Download the desktop version… If you are a PC user (windows), slacker has made a software player available in their support/download section of the site. All the tools from the site in a simple, media player-esqe application.

• Browse the “options” & “edit station” features of slacker. Go through every tab and try the features for yourself. It will make your station better, sooner.

• If you really hate what you’re hearing, BAN can also be used for the whole artists library – all their music goes byebye, never to be heard again! I love this feature… in the beginning, as my station was taking form, I was only banning songs… after noticing I really hated everything from the same artists over and over again, the BAN artist feature became my best friend.

News from slacker… Now they’ve gone wireless.

If you make a station you’d like to take with you, without taking your laptop, the new Slacker G2 player does everything the website does and you can take it with you! Fabulous!

Slacker.com Quick Review:

Purchased: I didn’t since Slacker.com is a free service. There is a premium upgrade and you can also purchase the G2 portable radio player in different storage capacities.

Slacker.com Benefits:

• Lots of control over music

• Free & Paid subscriptions
• You’re not purchasing music, you’re selecting music preferences

Slacker.com Drawbacks:

• Free service limits, advertising

• No software player for Mac

The Mr. gives slacker.com 4/5 – Everyone hates radio commercials and that’s the only reason I gave it a 4 instead of a 5. When the service started there were no commercials even on the free version, but the free version now has commercials. That’s what I get for being cheap, but even with commercials I still use slacker.com all the time. The paid version has more features without the commercials so I would likely give the paid service a 5/5.