UK sales director Mathew Faulkner said that Smartt Softproofware, from German monitor calibration software developer K-Flow, solved many of the challenges that had "stifled the uptake of soft-proofing technologies".
The desktop software package combines with a user's existing Eye-One spectrophotometer to automatically calibrate their monitor and to record the ambient lighting conditions.
The software uses this information, as well as username, the serial number of the monitor and other required data, to create an XML job ticket that conforms to the Ghent PDF Workgroup's (GWG) Soft Proofing Ticket.
This is attached to the file when it is sent to the next person in the proofing chain.
According to Faulkner, the fact that the software is installed on the users' desktop, rather than being cloud-based, has removed brand concerns over having complete control over their artwork.
"Typical soft-proofing applications have been web-based,which means taking your high-res artwork and converting to a JPEG to view in your browser. That file is often put onto the vendor's server and a lot of the big brands don't like having their brand new products out their in the ether," he said.
"What Smartt does is mirror the workflow of a conventional proof, so you take a PDF or TIFF file for instance and the software will open that file in its native workspace, calibrate your monitor and validate that your monitor is capable of displaying an exact representation of what you'd see on press.
"That information is then built into an XML ticket that accompanies the file to the next person in the chain. The key part is validating that everyone that looked at the file saw the same thing, because that data is built into the XML file."
Faulkner added that Smartt's pricing model, which uses a one-off cost for the software rather than a per-click charge for viewing files online on a browser-based system, had the potential to significantly lower the cost of soft-proofing.
"A number of systems operate on a pricing model where you pay a certain amount up front to view a certain number of proofs and as soon as you go over that you have to renew your subscription," he said.
"With Smartt, you buy the software and then viewing the proofs is free, so it's a one-off software buy. If you think of a hard copy proof as a consumable in a cost sense, then you shouldn't replace one consumable with a digital consumable in a cost-per-click sense."
Smartt Softproofware costs around €2,000 (£1,690) per seat, while Faulkner said that a cloud-based system could cost as much as €15,000, which might only entitle the user to a finite number of proofs.
Faulkner added that a significant reduction in the cost of high quality monitors in recent years has already removed one major barrier to widespread soft-proofing, with hardware calibratable monitors capable of displaying the full colour gamut of a conventional press plus spot colour, including Pantone, now available from around £800.
