GoProof Makes Online Proofing Easy in Creative Cloud Apps

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For the past month I’ve been playing with GoProof, a free new online proofing add-on for the CC 2015 versions of Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. It adds a proof tracking panel to each app that integrates with my (free) account at GoProof.net.

GoProof Free Creative Cloud Add-On

If you have a Creative Cloud account, you can go to the Adobe Add-ons page at https://creative.adobe.com/addons and search for free and commercial add-ons, like GoProof. There are tons of them!

After downloading and installing the GoProof add-on, I found a new GoProof panel in each of these apps, located in their Window > Extensions fly-out menus.

Let’s say that I’m working in Illustrator CC 2015, mocking up a few new web site page designs for my client, Acme Industries. Instead of sending the five reviewers at Acme a PDF of each Illustrator file, and trying to make sense of the five commented PDFs I get in return, I can use GoProof!

Using GoProof to Manage Proofing Rounds

First, with the document active in Illustrator, I open the GoProof panel from the Window > Extensions panel and log-on if necessary.  Then I choose a client and project from the panel’s menus, and click the Send Proof button lower right.

panel

The GoProof panel remembers client names and project names that you’ve used before. You can create new clients and projects on the fly from the panel menu.

GoProof then takes you through a few additional screens where you specify who should get this proof (actually, they get an email with a link to the proof online), add a Subject line and message, and review everything before it finally gets sent. That’s it, you can go on working on the next job. In the background, GoProof is uploading a PNG version of your file to your space on the GoProof secure servers and sending out the emails.

When your clients click the link in the email that GoProof sent, they’re brought to the online proof in their browser. They don’t need to log in or install anything. They can use the service’s commenting tools to mark up the proof, and add their comments on the right. The person you assigned the Gatekeeper role to can add additional reviewers, send reminders (as can you), and finally “calls it” when their proofing is done.

commented-post

A set of four basic commenting tools is available at the top of the screen. With them, you can add a text comment, draw a box, apply an X for “not good,” and a checkmark for “good.” You can add your own comments to any of these items, and reply to others comments, in the right-hand comments pane. I do wish GoProof had a wider range of commenting tools, but after all, it’s a new service. I’m sure they’re feverishly working on new tools and features—indeed, they released a number of them in the past month. These updates get pushed through automatically to the Add-on. Neat!

Okay, so collaborative commenting is useful. But how do you see all the comments back in Illustrator? Answer: in the GoProof panel! I love this. The same panel that you use to send proofs and manage proofs is used to view commented proofs. Just click the Reviews tab (next to the default Projects tab) at the top of the panel.

in-illust

The larger you make the panel, the larger the preview of the page becomes. You can cycle through each numbered comment with the Previous and Next links at the top, make that change to the live document, then click the “Complete” checkbox. When you’re done, you can re-send this as a new version of the proof. No need to rename your file, GoProof just adds “v2” to the proof name in its own system. Anyone can look at previous versions right in the GoProof web site.

Mobile versions of GoProof were just released, on iOS and Android. I haven’t had a chance to check those out yet, but they look promising.

GoProof Pricing

Have I mentioned that all of this is free? For you and your clients. The (reasonable) catch is that if you like the service, you’ll probably start using it for multiple clients and multiple projects. But remember, GoProof uploads a PNG version of your files to their server space for each proof version of each project file. If you need more space than the free service allows, you can upgrade to “Pro” level, which is $10/mo for 5GB of space, per user. They also have enterprise plans available, useful for ad agencies, for example.

I’ve enjoyed playing with this release, and the few clients I’ve had a chance to try it out on found it useful too. I’m a big fan of any technology that makes it easier to collaborate on projects, and GoProof certainly does so. One question: Why hasn’t Acrobat figured this out yet?

Anne-Marie “Her Geekness” Concepción is the co-founder (with David Blatner) and CEO of Creative Publishing Network, which produces InDesignSecrets, InDesign Magazine, and other resources for creative professionals. Through her cross-media design studio, Seneca Design & Training, Anne-Marie develops ebooks and trains and consults with companies who want to master the tools and workflows of digital publishing. She has authored over 20 courses on lynda.com on these topics and others. Keep up with Anne-Marie by subscribing to her ezine, HerGeekness Gazette, and contact her by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @amarie
  • Blanche says:

    Thanks for outlining process AM. I have downloaded the free version to see if it works with one of my clients. So will give it a go.
    Best wishes

  • Stephen says:

    I’m liking it, but the repeated need to login from within Illustrator is annoying. (You can’t use a password manager for that part either). Plus, why are you paying $10 for pro, and I’m having to pay $29.95 for a single user licence??

    • Nora says:

      I am really liking it too. Like you, it is costing me $30 for a single license. I imagine the price discrepency has something to do with the fact that this was written in 2015, 3 years ago. I am sure they have raised the price since then. A bummer, but it is what it is.

  • User says:

    Doesn’t allow anything greater than a DPS!

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