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CarrieDowning
CarrieDowning
Level 2
January 20, 2024
Question

Workfront proof - proofs are not visually accurate

  • January 20, 2024
  • 3 replies
  • 1096 views

In reading through some previous questions/answers, I think I'm understanding that the actual pdf proof is compressed or flattened into an image in the proofing tool. This is causing a major issue for us with a company-wide campaign. Our design has layers of transparencies and once it's uploaded into Workfront Proof, that image is altered and looks terrible. That proof, in the proofing tool, is what our end user must approve and it's just not accurate. We spend a tremendous amount of time dealing with this. If you can't view the proof how it's intended to look, then what's the reason for using the proofing tool at all. Does anyone else struggle with this? I would love to hear what your workarounds are. Is there anything we can be doing differently for this to look accurate once uploaded into the proofing tool. Are there settings in the pdf output that our designers should be using to remedy this situation. Is there anything within the our instance that can be changed by Adobe support to help?  I have attached 2 images of what our original artwork looks like and what it looks like once loaded into the proofing process. Thanks!

3 replies

J
JustinWh
Level 3
January 22, 2024

My team struggles with similar issues during email and webpage proofing. There doesn't seem to be any way for us to proof emails as they appear to to the user, including live links and gif animations.

The "workaround" we have resorted to using gets the proofing done, but leaves a lot of room for the proof tool to provide better options—We issue a proof in Workfront using a flattened version of what the asset is intended to look like, but then we also have to send a test email or link to test webpage to those same users so they can interact with the actual content our customers will see. The benefit here to using the proofing tool is that it does still allow a single central place for asset feedback and approval. 

The downside of course is that you have to both issue a proof and provide a link to the actual asset, thereby doubling the work to be done, AND introducing confusion and a chance for error during the proofing process.

By the way we use Adobe Marketo for email, so it's doubly frustrating that we can't more easily issue proofs of those emails in Adobe Workfront.

    Richard__Carlson
    Community Advisor
    Richard__CarlsonCommunity Advisor
    Community Advisor
    January 24, 2024

    I would double check your PDF settings so that you're not applying something like overprint to the PDF.  Otherwise I would double check to make sure the PDF is constructed using all of the transparencies on the same layer... in other words, if not a PDF setting it seems like it has to do with layering in the artwork.

    A
    AnthonyRing3
    Level 2
    August 6, 2025

    We're still experiencing this, and it is terrible. We have to add extra steps to export things as jpegs and proof that, then send the final PDF separately when it gets approved, since people can't just download the PDF from proof like before. It's a huge obstacle to productivity, with no update that this is being looked at.

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