Proof-it-Online Review: Proofing still sucks, but at least it’s not confusing

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.