Do you ever look at revised packaging artwork and struggle to find what change has been made? 

Does your email inbox drive you insane when feedback for multiple artwork projects starts coming in? 

It’s common for artwork approval projects to become chaotic as the number of projects scales up. Proofing is a critical part of artwork management and online proofing tools can help you navigate the chaos.

What Is Online Proofing Software?

Online proofing software is a fast and easy way to approve product labels. Proofing software is commonly used by designers, project managers, brand managers, marketing teams and legal teams to sign off product labeling artworks.

For artwork development, online tools exist that can help you quickly review artworks. Online proofing software offers a collection of tools that can help you inspect packaging artworks and ensure that they are pixel perfect before it goes into production.

Now that people are working from home, online tools are the perfect solution to review artworks quickly and accurately. Getting started with online proofing is easy. Here are some of the key advantages of online proofing with artwork management software.

Advantages Of Online Proofing Software

1. Eliminate Inbox Clutter

Inbox clutter is a serious issue that exists across various industries. It is quite common to miss out on messages. Even when using apps like Teams or Slack doesn’t help much. However, for artwork development projects there is a solution. Inbox clutter typically happens when you are collecting feedback from various reviewers for an artwork.

Artwork management platforms help stakeholders communicate through a single channel. All communication related to the artwork development process and proofing stays organized. Reviewers can provide feedback using the built-in annotation tools. They can also leave comments directly on the artwork which is much more intuitive than emails. 

2. Consolidate Feedback

Communicating over a single channel means that all the feedback stays in one place. There is no need to search for emails or messages to find feedback from a reviewer. artwork management platforms use checklists for task delegation. Managers can use checklists to tell reviewers what they need to review and set appropriate deadlines. This reduces overlapping as well as contradictory feedback from multiple reviewers.

3. Easy Integration Into Existing Workflows

You can easily integrate online proofing tools into your existing workflow. artwork management platforms can help you create optimized workflows for your projects, be it serial and parallel.

A serial workflow is when tasks happen in a sequence. Collaborators review the artwork only after the designers have developed it. 

An example of a parallel workflow is where both the legal team and the marketing team are proofing different parts of the artwork simultaneously.

A notable advantage of online proofing is that multiple people can simultaneously review and provide feedback on the artwork. This in turn increases productivity.

4. Bring Transparency In Teams

Artwork management platforms can make the artwork approval process more transparent. They come with dashboards that allow managers to get a bird’s-eye view of all the projects under progress. Team members have a clear idea of what to do and how far the project has progressed.

5. Bring In Accountability

Audit trails allow managers to see who made what changes and when. Artwork management tools make it easy to keep track of the review process. They also allow you to see what changes have been made over each revision.

6. Reduce Number Of Revisions 

Online proofing software has built-in tools that make providing feedback a breeze. Artwork management platforms integrate various Productivity Tools with online proofing software that enables collaborators to provide precise feedback. These tools allow reviewers to precisely inspect the color, font, size of visual elements, spelling, and more. They can also annotate the artwork or add comments to make their feedback more comprehensive. This helps designers understand better what changes they must make.

7. Speed Up The Approval Process

Managers can use dashboards to view where a project may be stuck and address that quickly. Comprehensive feedback and better communication mean that your artworks get approved faster, helping you meet deadlines and release products on time as well. 

8. Proof From Anywhere

Collaborators can work on the project from anywhere if they have an internet connection. They can access the platform using a browser of their choice. Online proofing tools also have dedicated pantone color finder that show the Pantone and CMYK codes, eliminating the need for color-calibrated displays.

9. Reduce Compliance Risk

Pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, food, and beverage industries must abide by strict regulatory compliances. Even minor errors can lead to batches of products going to waste, or even costly lawsuits. You can reduce the compliance risk by integrating online proofing into your artwork development process.

10. See Changes In Pdf Files In Seconds

Inspect and verify contents of artworks in PDF formats using online proofing tools. Designers usually deliver the artwork in PDF format. You can compare two files and check for differences, have a look at the individual layers, check for spelling errors, and more. You can try it out for free here.

Make sure you choose the proofing tool that respects your privacy and will not store your PDFs.

11. Store And Share Your Digital Assets Securely

Artwork management platforms make it easy to store and share all your artwork-related assets in a central secure location. You can give or revoke access according to your requirements. This feature ensures peace of mind when sharing sensitive data with external agencies.

Version control allows managers to keep a backup of old versions and see what has been changed. The artwork management platforms can also be integrated with online services such as Google Workspace or Adobe Creative Cloud for easier collaboration and asset sharing. 

12. Reduce Costs Associated With Artwork Management 

Artwork management tools and online proofing software can reduce costs associated with product recalls and compliance-related lawsuits. They can also replace expensive on-premises or end-user software for managing and proofing artwork files.

13. Improve Quality of Processes

Artwork management and online proofing software do not only give you flawless artwork, but they also improve the quality of work.

• An artwork management platform can vastly improve the quality of the workflow. You can use checklists to assign tasks, use the dashboard to see how well projects are progressing, or where they are stuck.
• Online proofing software can drastically improve the quality of the feedback. The platform can then collate feedback from different reviewers and forward it to the designers.
• The improved quality of communication also reduces the number of revisions needed.

How To Choose The Right Online Proofing Software?

There is a plethora of online proofing software available. Here are some key questions you need to keep in mind before you get one for your company.

1. Do you need your artwork reviewed by five or more collaborators? 
2. Do you have trouble coordinating with your collaborators while proofing artwork?
3. Is sharing artwork with collaborators a difficult task?
4. Do you often struggle with misleading or confusing feedback?
5. Do your collaborators miss deadlines delaying the artwork approval process?
6. Does the artwork management process lack accountability and transparency? Do you need to send out emails to multiple collaborators to know the progress of the project?
7. Is regulatory compliance a big headache for you?

If the answers to at least three of these questions are “yes”, then you need an online proofing software that offers secured asset storage, workflow management, and online proofing and collaborative tools.

Wrap Up

Do you think online proofing software will make your life easier? Which online proofing software do you think is right for you? Let us know in the comments below.