Soft proofing

Soft proofing shows, on your screen, how a photo will look when it is reproduced somewhere else — a print from a specific paper, a phone screen, the web. Every output device can show a slightly different range of colours than your monitor; soft proofing simulates the target so you can catch and fix problems before you export or send the file to a lab.

Open it from the Soft Proof button in the develop toolbar, next to View. The button lights up while proofing is on, so it is always clear you are looking at a simulation and not the real edit.

Turning it on

Click Soft Proof to open its panel, then tick Soft proofing. The preview switches to simulate the profile you chose; untick it (or click the lit button) to go back to the normal preview.

Soft proofing is a way of looking at the photo, not a change to it. It records no undo step, saves into no preset, and follows you from one photo to the next — and your setup is remembered the next time you open PxlMonk.

Choosing what to simulate

Profile — the output you want to preview:
- sRGB — the safe web/standard space; a good check for “will this look duller on an ordinary screen”.
- Display P3 — a wide-gamut screen (most modern phones and laptops).
- Adobe RGB — what many print labs and picture desks ask for.
- Load profile… — pick an ICC profile your print lab gave you for a specific printer and paper. This is where soft proofing earns its keep: you see the print’s colours, on your screen, before you pay for it.
Intent — how colours the target can’t reproduce are handled:
- Relative colorimetric — keeps in-gamut colours exact and pulls only the out-of-gamut ones in. The accurate choice, and the usual one for prints.
- Perceptual — gently compresses the whole range so relationships are preserved. Try this when a saturated photo looks like it’s losing separation in the shadows or a bright colour.
Black point compensation — maps the darkest tone of your photo to the darkest the target can print, rather than clipping the shadows. On by default; leave it on unless you have a reason not to.

The gamut warning

Tick Gamut warning to mark, in bright magenta, every pixel whose colour the chosen profile cannot reproduce. Those areas will shift when the file is really printed or shown, so the warning tells you exactly where to ease off — usually a very saturated flower, sky or fabric.

A common workflow: turn the warning on, and if large areas light up, lower saturation or vibrance (or use a colour mask on just that region) until the magenta mostly clears; then turn the warning off to judge the result.

What it does not do yet

It does not simulate the exact paper white and ink black of a printing paper (an “absolute” proof). That is a planned addition.
It reads printer/paper profiles you load from a file; it does not yet list the profiles your operating system already has installed.