Web-based tool streamlines proofing

ProofHQ is a new web-based proofing tool that streamlines the process of collaborative review, proofing and approval for creative teams.

It can be used by ad agencies, marketing teams, web designers, graphic designers, photographers, public relations, pre-press companies and printers.

In fact, anyone who needs to get colleagues or clients to review and approve documents, designs or artwork.

Most people use email and attachments to send documents for sign-off and review.

Email is easy to send, but fails badly when it comes to visual mark-up, collaboration and tracking.

Reviewers can't see each others' comments, responses can't be tracked, replies are hard to understand and multiple file attachments become impossible to manage.

ProofHQ was designed to solve these problems.

Sending proofs with ProofHQ is as easy as using email, especially with tools such as the "drag-and-drop" desktop Uploadr, which sends proofs direct from a user's desktop.

Once a proof is created ProofHQ wins over email by capturing reviewers' comments online rather than in multiple email replies and attachments.

ProofHQ dramatically improves the way that creative teams work together and with their clients.

Reviewers add mark-ups and comments to the proof online, and can then create discussion threads around each others' feedback.

This improves collaboration and helps "bottom out" design issues.

Designers and studio managers get much better tracking and follow-up than with email.

ProofHQ provides a workflow and dashboard that enables the manager of a proof to set deadlines for reviews, track reviewers' comments and send reminders.

ProofHQ also provides version control, so that each revision of a proof can be uploaded and reviewers can see old versions and new versions together for comparison.

Proofing very large files Users can create proofs for very large files (up to 75MB), which would challenge most email systems.

When a proof is created reviewers receive an email with a simple URL to the online proof.

The proof is viewed in a standard browser using Flash.

No software download is needed.

Technical innovation To solve the problem of downloading large proofs to a browser and giving reviewers fast access to their proofs, ProofHQ streams the proof in a series of tiled layers (like Google maps) so that reviewers only download the part of the proof that they need to see, at the zoom level they have requested.

The streaming architecture enables fast panning and zooming around proofs and moving from page-to-page.

As an added bonus, ProofHQ lets users send large files via the web, which is a function that often takes place during or at the end of the proof process.

Free trial ProofHQ reduces the time, cost, stress and aggravation of managing proofing and approvals.

There is a free 30-day trial, and users pay a low monthly fee to use the service.

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