Substrate Options —‘Paper or Plastic?’

Proofing on plastic also presents some special challenges. At Serigraph, "We use a variety of different methods, but we have to proof on the material we're going to print," says Reis. "We produce both ink-jet and halftone dot proofs, and we spend a lot of time getting it right."

Adds Tenyer, "Proofing can get a little tricky on synthetics, due to the melting points of various plastics. Trying to proof on a .010? styrene just doesn't happen because it distorts too quickly, but you can proof on 24 mil because it's more stable. That said, we've been able to tweak some off-the-shelf systems by managing the heat transfer of the rollers onto the substrates."