Guide
The print proofing checklist
What to check on a poster, flyer, brochure or pack before it goes to the printer: the words, the numbers and the file itself.
By the LYNCE team · Updated
A print proofing checklist earns its keep because print has no edit button. Once a poster, flyer, brochure or carton is printed, a wrong price, a dead QR code or a line clipped at the trim is a fixed cost: reprint it, or live with it. Run this on the final file before it goes to the printer, in order, with a pen. Print the page and tick it off; it works for one A5 flyer and for a forty-page catalogue.
It has two halves: words and facts (is everything true, current and spelled right?) and production (will the file print the way it looks?). Printers check much of the second half for you. Nobody checks the first half unless you do. The general method is in how to proofread an image; for the screen side of a campaign, see the ad creative QA checklist.
Before you start.
Put these on the desk first. Proofreading without the sources only proves the file is internally tidy.
The approved copy
The last signed-off text, not the version in Tuesday’s email.
The sources it quotes
Brief, price list, offer terms, event details. Every fact on the artwork came from somewhere.
The printer’s spec
Trim size, bleed, safe area, colour mode, file format and how pages should be supplied. For packaging, the dieline.
The print proofing checklist.
Eight sections, in this order: words and facts first, production second, sign-off last.
Text and facts
- Every line matches the approved copy: headline, body, captions, small print.
- Every name is spelled right: people, venues, sponsors, products.
- No placeholder survives: “Lorem ipsum”, “XX”, “TBC”, “[insert]”.
- One spelling convention throughout, and one way of writing each product name.
- No name, number or price is split across a line break.
- Read it bottom to top, so you see the words, not the layout you remember.
Numbers: prices, dates, phone numbers, URLs and QR codes
- Every price against the price list: amount, currency, decimal separator, and the VAT wording where it matters.
- Every date against a calendar, weekday included. “Saturday 14 March” has to be a Saturday.
- Times and opening hours written one consistent way.
- Call the phone number. Send the email address a test.
- Type every URL into a browser exactly as printed.
- Scan every QR code from a printed proof at actual size. It should open the live page, not a staging link, and keep working for as long as the print is out there.
Brand and legal lines
- The current logo, in the right colourway, with its clear space respected.
- Tagline, claims and boilerplate are this season’s, not last year’s.
- Offer small print matches the offer: dates, exclusions, the terms URL.
- Trademark symbols where the guidelines require them; the copyright year is current.
- Mandatory information is present and legible: company details, age restrictions, recycling marks, ingredients and allergens on packs — whatever your market requires.
- Barcodes scan, with their blank margin (the quiet zone) intact.
Layout: bleed, safe area, trim, type size and contrast
- Backgrounds and images run into the bleed: commonly 3 mm per edge in Europe and ⅛ inch in the US. The printer’s spec wins.
- Text, logos and QR codes sit inside the safe area, a few millimetres in from the trim.
- Folds, perforations and die-cuts land where the dieline says, and no line of text runs across a fold.
- Nothing is too small to read on a printed proof at arm’s length. Some markets set a legal minimum for mandatory text; EU food labelling, for one, sets a minimum x-height.
- Contrast survives paper: pale grey on white, fine type reversed out of a dark colour and text over a busy photo all print weaker than they look.
Images
- Resolution holds at printed size; around 300 ppi is the usual rule. A web image stretched to A3 is not.
- No missing links or low-resolution placeholders in the export.
- Crops still work once the bleed is added: no heads cut off by the trim.
- Usage rights cover print, this territory and this run.
Colour
- The colour mode is the one the printer asked for, usually CMYK plus any named spot colours, and bright screen colours have been previewed in CMYK.
- Spot colours are named exactly as specified, and there are none you didn’t mean to use.
- Small black text is plain black, not a four-colour black that blurs if the plates shift.
- Nothing white is set to overprint. White overprint prints as nothing at all.
- Colour-critical work gets a hard proof from the printer.
The final PDF export
- Exported with the printer’s preset (often a PDF/X standard), fonts embedded.
- Correct page size, spreads or single pages as asked, with bleed and crop marks if wanted.
- Page count and order are right: a saddle-stitched booklet needs a multiple of four pages.
- The file name carries the job and the version. “final-final-2” is a warning, not a version.
- Open the exported PDF and proof that. Exports drop fonts and resurrect hidden layers.
Sign-off
- One named person approves the exact file and version, in writing. A thumbs-up in a group chat is a mood, not a sign-off.
- The printer’s proof is compared with the PDF you sent, not assumed to match it.
- The approved PDF, the printer’s proof and the approval are kept together.
How to proofread a poster, a flyer, a brochure or a pack.
The checklist is the same for all four. Where the mistakes hide is not.
Posters
Proof at actual size, or print a tiled section at 100%. Read the headline from across the room and the details from a step away.
Flyers
A flyer proofreading checklist is this one, run on both sides. The back is where the date, the address and the terms live, and it tends to get half the attention.
Brochures and catalogues
Page numbers against the contents page, prices against the price list on every page, and spreads checked together: mistakes like to sit in the gutter.
Packaging
Proof flat on the dieline, then again on a folded mock-up. Every panel, every language, the barcode and the mandatory information, including the panel nobody looks at on screen: the bottom.
Where software helps, and where it doesn’t.
Two different checks often go by one name. Know which of them has actually been done.
Preflight checks the file
Your printer’s preflight, or your design software’s, checks fonts, resolution, colour space and bleed. It has no opinion about the price.
A proofreader checks the words
LYNCE does the words-and-facts half on the final PDF or image: it reads every line, checks prices, dates and contact details against the approved copy, brief or price list you add, and pins each finding to the artwork with a suggested fix. See artwork proofreading, or the AI PDF proofreader for brochures and catalogues.
You make the call
The hard proof, the colour and the decision stay with you: a proofreading pass reports, it does not approve.
Print proofing, answered.
The final check, before it goes live.
Give the finished creative one more QA pass before publish, send or print.
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