How it works
Two people, two jobs to do.
A proof only works if the customer can understand it in two minutes and your team can act on the answer without reading anything. Here is each side, step by step, on the real screens.
Journey one
What the customer does.
No account, no password, no software to install. They click a link in an email.
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An email arrives
Subject: Proof Ready for Review. It contains one link to one job. If you upload a corrected version later, they get New Proof Version Available — pointing at the same link.
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The proof opens in their browser
Your shop's name and logo sit at the top, with the job number and the product beside them. A View only badge tells them plainly that this is a proof, not a file to keep.
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They see every file and every page
Front and back. All five pages of the catalogue. Each file is listed with its page count, each page is captioned with its own size, and nothing is hidden behind a scroll bar in a PDF reader.
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They check it the way a printer would
The cutline and the safe line are drawn straight onto the artwork, so the customer can see what gets trimmed and what sits too close to the edge. Rulers, zoom, fit, rotate, pan, a two-page spread and a full-screen view are all there, and the units switch between inches, centimetres and feet.
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They read what they are actually approving
The specifications panel spells it out: job number, file name, how many files, how many pages, file size, the artwork dimensions, the finish size, the order number, the product and the current status — plus a note on any automatic correction that was applied.
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They decide, and they sign their name
Three buttons: Approve, Upload new file(s), Put it on hold. None of them work until they type their name, and a hold asks for the reason in the same dialog.
One job, two files. The customer passes the back before they reach the buttons.
The panel that stops the argument
Everything the customer is agreeing to, in one column.
Most proof disputes are not about the design. They are about the size, the page count or the order number. ProofQueue writes all three next to the button the customer is about to press.
- Artwork dimensions and the finish size after trimming
- How many files and how many pages are on the job
- The order number, repeated in large type at the bottom
- Any automatic correction ProofQueue applied to the artwork
- The current status, in the customer's own words
Hold. “Tell us what needs to change. This is sent to the team with your name.” The request and the requester arrive together, so nobody has to chase a reply for the missing detail.
Approved. The banner, the stamp on the artwork and the status all change at once. The buttons and the toolbar lock, so the same proof cannot be approved twice or quietly altered afterwards.
Wherever they are
Approving from a phone is the normal case, not the exception.
Owners approve signage from a van. Marketing managers approve packaging on a train. The proof page reorganises itself into one column at phone width, with the same artwork, the same specifications and the same three buttons.
A proof that only works on a desktop is a proof that waits until Monday.
Journey two
What your production team does.
Create it, send it, and then stop thinking about it until the state changes.
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Create the proof
Enter the customer, the order number, the product and the product specifications, then attach the artwork. Or start from a saved contact and skip the typing.
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ProofQueue measures the artwork
It reads the page count, the file size and the page geometry, works out the finish size, and applies its automatic correction — resizing art to the trim or media box and adding bleed where it detects that bleed is missing. What it did is written on the proof for the customer to see.
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Send the link
The customer gets Proof Ready for Review. The link carries an expiry date, thirty days by default, and the job page shows you exactly when that is.
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Watch the board, not the inbox
The dashboard counts Pending, Approved, Rejected, New Files and Total. Filter to one of them, or search a job number or an order number. Every row carries a thumbnail of the artwork.
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Handle what comes back
An approval arrives as an email and as a status. A hold arrives with the customer's written reason. A replacement file arrives as a pending upload that you promote or reject — nothing on the job changes until you decide.
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Hand the job to production
The job page carries the current file and its version number, every earlier version, the product specifications, the order number, the expiry date and an activity log showing when the proof was opened.
Creating a proof. The product specifications you type here are shown to the customer on the proof page.
The board
One screen answers “where is that job?”
Counters across the top, filters under them, and a search box that takes a job number or an order number. A job that needs you is a number you can see from across the room.
- Pending — sent, no decision yet
- Approved — signed off, with a name against it
- Rejected — shown to the customer as On Hold, with their reason
- New Files — the customer sent replacement artwork, waiting on you
The job
Everything about one job, on one page.
Open a job and you get the customer, the order number, the status, when it was created, when the link expires, the current file and its version number, and the product specifications the customer sees.
Below that: the pending reuploads waiting for your decision, an activity log recording when the proof was opened, and the full list of file versions. Resend Proof sends the same link again without creating a second job.
Contacts
Your regulars, already typed in.
Most print customers are repeat customers. Save them once, import the list from a CSV file if you already have one, and start a proof straight from the contact rather than retyping an address on every job.
Along the way
The four emails ProofQueue sends.
Nobody has to remember to send an update, and nobody has to write one.
Proof Ready for Review
To the customer, when the proof goes out. Carries the link.
New Proof Version Available
To the customer, when you upload a corrected version. Same link, new artwork.
Proof Approved
To your team, the moment the customer signs off.
Proof Rejected
To your team, when the customer puts the job on hold, with their written reason.
Walk through it with one of your own proofs.
Bring a job that caused trouble — a double-sided sign, a catalogue, a revision nobody could keep straight — and we will run it through ProofQueue while you watch.