Henlow-based Mentor joins existing NEC distributor Computers Unlimited, which is headquartered in London and has supplied NEC products for a number of years.

Richard Wilks, NEC sales manager for specialist displays, said: "Mentor's experience in this field is of paramount importance to us to grow this business across both the Mac and PC markets.

"You need to have people who know what they're doing in these specialised areas and we're confident Mentor are just that."

Both companies will supply NEC's full SpectraView range, including the new SpectraView 3090, which is due for release in July 2008.

NEC said that the new 30in-wide colour-calibrated LCD, which displays 98% of the Adobe RGB Colour Space, was ideally suited to design, pre-press and print professionals.

After a number of years as a niche technology, soft-proofing looks to be on the verge of breaking into the mainstream as tech and culture have caught up with the concept.

Niall Coady, managing director of colour management specialists Targetcolour, said: "I think that, at this particular juncture, people can more than trust a proof that they're seeing on screen and if that's managed properly it can span from the advertiser to the publisher and right on down to the printer.

"Today what we have is technology that is capable of delivering the result, we have impetus where we have people on both sides of the equation wanting to drive it forward and the only aspect that needs to be hammered out is the commercial one before it becomes accepted on a mass scale."