Print Preview

Seeing the print before it's printed

A screen makes color with light; a press makes it with ink on paper, so a printed picture never looks quite like the screen. This page shows the difference: huebic converts every pixel to the ink amounts a press would use, then shows what those inks look like on paper.

Printers call this soft proofing. It's a preview, not a contract proof: it's only as good as your screen, and the light in your room matters too.

Two profiles, side by side

Each profile describes one kind of printing: the press, the inks and the paper. Pick one for each side and drag across the image to compare them, for example coated against uncoated paper, or a European press against an American one. Ask your printer which profile they use; the current standards are at the top of each list.

Set Left shows to Original to compare the screen image with one print instead.

Relative or perceptual?

Relative colorimetric keeps every color the press can print exactly, and moves the rest to the closest printable color. Best for logos and brand colors.

Perceptual gently squeezes all colors to fit, keeping the differences between them, so gradients and photos keep their detail. Try both on a vivid image and drag the split.

Simulate paper

Paper is never as white as a screen. Uncoated paper is greyer, newsprint is beige, and coated paper often has a slightly blue white from optical brighteners. With Simulate paper on, each side shows its own paper, measured when the profile was made, and blacks look as deep as the ink can make them.

It looks duller than the screen, and that's the point: that is roughly what the print will look like.

The checks

• Out of gamut marks the colors the press can't reach, in bright green. They will print as the nearest color the press can make.
• Ink shows where the ink gets heavy: yellow, then orange, then red close to the press's limit (often around 300%). Heavy areas dry slowly and can smudge. The profile keeps a converted image under its limit, so this shows where you're close, not over.
• Black shows dark areas printed with all four inks in blue, and black-ink-only areas in green. Four-ink black is deep and fine for large areas, but small text in it can look fuzzy if the plates are slightly out of line.

Reading the numbers

Hover over the image to see that pixel's ink for both sides: cyan, magenta, yellow and black in percent, and the total. The summary under the image gives each side's share of out-of-gamut pixels and its heaviest ink.

Images are treated as standard sRGB, as on the web. The preview is scaled to at most 1,400 pixels wide, which is plenty for judging color.