These are the main instructions for SoftProof.

Open the SoftProof Dialog

You will see one image file loaded into the list: MatrixLarge.jpg. You can use this as a starting point for softproofing, zoom in to see more detail, and various select profiles and controls to preview device simulation.

For printers, this means: how prints will look on a selected profile for a specific printer model, paper, and ink.

For displays and tablets: this shows you how some colors may change, particularly when viewing in image on a device that has a smaller gamut (range of viewable colors).

While you're previewing, you can use a Gamut Warning control to show you colors in the image which can't be "rendered" (printed or shown) on the selected simulated device, without being changed. Some printers can produce colors that simply can't be viewed on a typical gamut display (although a wide gamut display could potentially handle them). Some displays can't show certain colors in an image without reducing their saturation (wider gamut colors on a smaller gamut display). Softproofing with gamut warning is a way of "seeing" these issues indirectly, even if they may not be directly visible on your calibrated display.

Add images to the list for preview (optional) in one of these ways:

• Click the Add Folder or Add Files button above the list to select which image file(s) you want to add to the list.
• Drag-and-drop a folder/file from the operating system into either the list or the preview area, and images from folders (with subfolder contents included) or files will be added.
• Advanced Settings allows you to change the default preview list from the MatrixLarge.jpg to a different folder/file to load every time Softproof is opened.

Preview Area:

Click a file in the list, or use your up and down arrows, to select an image and it will be loaded and displayed in the preview area. What you’ll see are the original image colors, without any device simulation.

Examine the previewed image details in one of the following ways:

• Single clicks with the Magnifier tool will zoom in by small increments.
• Click and drag a selection rectangle, over a region from upper left to lower right, to quickly and exactly zoom in on the selected area.
• Use the “+/-“ keys on the keyboard, or the scroll wheel on a mouse, to zoom in and out.
  You can select and use the Hand tool to drag and pan around.
• You can temporarily switch from the Magnifier tool, to the Hand, by holding down the space bar when the cursor is over the preview area.
• Click the Reset button, or use the “R” key, to reset scaling and see the full image again.
• Click the Full Screen icon, or hit the “F” key, and the contents of the Preview area will be expanded to best-fit the entire screen.
• When in Full Screen mode, the spacebar toggles between the original image and the softproof. Hit any other key, or click, to exit Full Screen mode.
• The Magnifier and Hand tools are disabled when in Full Screen mode.

Preview Device Simulation:

• Select a profile from the Device Simulation popup list. Check the Preview box and the preview area changes to show how the image will look on that device.
• If you check the Gamut Warning box, any colors in the image which can’t be printed or displayed on the simulated device without being changed will be toggled to a flat 50% gray. (You can use Advanced Settings to change the gamut warning color to something different if you like)

• If you select a printer profile for simulation, the Rendering Intent and Black Point Compensation controls will also be enabled.
  The Rendering Intent offers 4 methods according to the ICC (International Color Consortium - www.color.org). Photographers often use Perceptual and Relative Colorimetric but there is no golden rule.
  Black Point Compensation is a color management method that helps maintain shadow detail when converting between source and destination color spaces when working with ICC profiles.

Notes and Considerations:

If you have multiple displays, you can drag the SoftProof dialog from one to another. You can hit the “D” key to toggle showing the name of the display profile in the title of the SoftProof dialog.
There's an internal RGB Working Space for the SoftProof dialog which defaults to Adobe RGB. Images that you preview that are tagged with Adobe RGB will be displayed without conversion. Images tagged with other working spaces such as sRGB, Apple, or ColorMatch will be silently converted to Adobe RGB. You can change to a different RGB Working Space in Advanced Settings.
There are tooltips for nearly all controls in the Softproof dialog. Hover the mouse over the buttons, popups, and controls to see additional useful descriptions of what they do and how they work.
Supported image file types are JPEG (color and grayscale) and TIFF (color) of virtually any/all sizes, small through huge. Virtual memory automatically handles files that are too large to fit in RAM.
The Softproof dialog is fully color managed, and the Preview will be tailored to the display profile and characteristics of each calibrated screen you move it to.
Since color management needs to work properly for the entire Softproof dialog, you won’t be allowed to “straddle” the Softproof dialog across more than one screen if you have multiple displays – it will automatically snap to the center of a different display if you try to partially move it there.
The Softproof dialog will take advantage of a wide gamut display if you have one.

Advanced Settings

Default Location

The topmost section lets you configure or reset the "Default Location", which SoftProof uses to fill its file list with one or more images every time you open it. This is a powerful feature that lets you tailor the starting SoftProof image file set to any images of your own. You can use an existing folder of your own, or create one, and use a subfolder structure, if you like, to further refine and organize your images.

"Set folder or file" lets you choose either an individual file (so that SoftProof opens with a single image in the list) or a folder (in which case, how the list is filled depends on the "Search subfolders checkbox" setting described below).

"Reset To Default" goes back to the default setting: the MatrixLarge.jpg file included in the installer.

"Clear" results in an empty file list whenever SoftProof is started (at which point, you're expected to add your own images manually to the list.

Note that the Default Location is only a starting point, for filling the SoftProof file list when it opens. You can always manually add your own images while SoftProof is open.

Search subfolders checkbox

By default, this box is checked, meaning that whenever a folder is added to the SoftProof file list, any subfolders that this folder contains (as well any subfolders that they contain) will be searched, and all image files that are found will be added to the list. This is a powerful setting, but also comes with a certain amount of responsibility - it pays to have some idea about how many folders, subfolders, and image files might be encompassed by this recursive search, whenever you add one or more folders to the file list.

When not checked, only the topmost image files in a folder will be added to the list. There will be no recursive search of subfolders and their content.

This setting applies both to manually adding folders to the list in the SoftProof dialog while it's open, as well as the use of a folder as the Default Location for automatic file loading when SoftProof starts up.

RGB Working Space

This important setting establishes a relationship between device-dependent (RGB) and device-independent (Lab) color spaces. It's an essential component of creating a color-managed workflow for displaying images, both with and without softproofing enabled, on calibrated displays. Adobe RGB, which is the default, is "larger" than a typical "standard" gamut display. Using it will let you see a wider, more saturated range of colors (such as the most saturated color patches color bars in the upper left corner of MatrixLarge.jpg) on a wide gamut display. The other settings are sRGB (which you can choose if you want to limit the colors shown in the SoftProof dialog to the smaller sRGB color space), as well as other working spaces typically found in 3rd party color management aware applications.

Gamut Warning Color

This is the color used to show which colors in the softproof are "out of gamut" (cannot be printed or displayed without being altered to a greater or lesser degree), based on the profile that you've chosen for the device to simulate, when the "Gamut Warning" box is checked. By default, this is 50% gray. Click to choose a different color if you prefer.

Do you need additional help?

Please submit a support request (ticket) here.