What Should I Check Before Approving a Proof?
By The Velocity Wear Team
Check the spelling of every word and name, the stated print dimensions as numbers rather than by eye, the placement measured from a fixed point such as the collar seam, the colour references, and the order line itself covering garment style, colour, size split and quantity. Approving the proof starts production, so this is the last point at which anything can be changed without cost or delay. Ten minutes here is worth more than any other ten minutes in the process.
Read Every Word Out Loud
Typos in familiar text are close to invisible, because your brain supplies what it expects to see rather than what is there. Reading aloud forces you to process each word individually. For lists of names, read them backwards from the bottom, which breaks the pattern-matching entirely. Pay particular attention to the things you are most confident about: your own company name, your tagline, the word you have typed a thousand times. Those are the ones that get through, because nobody bothers to check them.
Check the Size as a Number, Not as an Impression
A proof is displayed at whatever size your screen happens to show it, which means judging scale visually is close to meaningless. The proof should state a print width and height in millimetres or inches. Read those numbers and picture them: 250mm across is a substantial chest print, 80mm is a discreet left-chest mark. If you want certainty, print the proof at 100% on A4 or A3, cut out the design and hold it against a garment you already own. It takes two minutes and catches the single most common regret, which is a logo that turned out smaller than expected.
Where Is the Top of the Print Measured From?
Placement should be expressed as a measurement from a fixed reference, normally so many centimetres down from the collar seam, not as a vague notion of centred on the chest. This matters because your eye reads a flat proof differently to how a print sits on a worn garment. A design that looks correctly placed on a flat outline often sits too high on a person, because the chest curves away and the shoulders slope. Confirm the number, and if you are unsure, measure the equivalent point on a garment you own.
Check It Against the Right Garment Size
Proofs are normally laid out on one representative size, usually a medium or large. A print scaled to look right there can dominate an extra small and look lost on a 3XL. Decide whether the design stays at a fixed size across the run, which is usually correct for logos, or scales with the garment, which suits large graphic prints. Make sure the proof says which, because nobody should be guessing during production.
Colour, Stated as a Reference Rather Than a Description
The proof should name the colours being used. If it says the blue in our logo, that is not a specification and it puts the interpretation on somebody else. Give a named reference, and remember that what you can achieve depends on the method: screen printing mixes ink to a specified reference and gets closest, DTF and DTG build colour from process inks so saturated tones read softer, and embroidery is matched to the nearest available thread rather than mixed. Confirm you have understood which of those applies to your job before approving.
The Method-Specific Traps
Each decoration process fails in its own characteristic way, and these are the details worth looking for depending on what you have chosen.
- Embroidery: check that small text and hairline strokes have been simplified rather than reproduced literally, because fine detail below a few millimetres will fill in and become unreadable in thread.
- Screen printing: check the number of ink colours, since setup is charged per colour, and check that tight registration between colours is not being asked for where a small gap would be safer.
- DTF and DTG on dark garments: confirm how the white underbase has been handled, particularly at soft edges, drop shadows and any area meant to fade out.
- Sublimation: confirm the garment is polyester and light-based, and check where the design crosses seams and edges, because all-over prints behave differently there.
- Vinyl names and numbers: check the spelling of every single name against your source list, since this is per-item personalisation and each error is its own ruined garment.
The Order Line Is Part of the Proof
People check the artwork and skip the details underneath it. Read the garment style code, the colour, the size split and the total quantity as carefully as you read the design. A perfect print on the wrong colour hoodie is still a wrong order, and a size split copied from last year is how a team ends up with nine mediums and no XL. Since the minimum is 20 pieces per order with sizes mixed freely, there is no reason to compromise the split.
“"Every mistake that ever reached a garment was on a proof somebody approved in under a minute."”
One Named Person Signs It Off
Group approval is not approval. When a proof goes to five people and three reply with a thumbs up, nobody has checked it, because each assumed one of the others did. Name the person responsible, give them the source files to check against rather than their memory, and give them a deadline. If a decision is still open, say so instead of approving to keep things moving. Holding for a day costs a day. Approving early and changing your mind can cost the whole lead time, because production starts at approval and guidance of around 10 to 15 working days runs from that point.