Proofing – TwonaBlog

November 27, 2023November 27, 2023

The Power of Comparison: Elevating Packaging Proofing to Precision

Before a packaging design goes to print, it undergoes a series of reviews and approvals. This meticulous process aims to catch any errors, inconsistencies, or deviations from the brand guidelines. The consequences of overlooking inaccuracies in packaging can be severe, ranging from costly reprints to damage to brand reputation due to misleading or incorrect information.

Why are comparison tools indispensable for such a task?

Comparison tools provide a side-by-side analysis of different design versions. This visual consistency check is crucial for ensuring that all elements align with the brand’s visual identity and standards.

In packaging, textual errors can be disastrous. Comparison tools not only highlight changes in graphics but also allow for a detailed proofing of textual content, ensuring that every word is accurate and compliant.

Furthermore, and specially in collaborative environments, different stakeholders may suggest changes to a design. Comparison tools aid in version control, allowing designers and approvers to track modifications and verify that the correct version is being approved.

How do Comparison Tools Enhance Accuracy in Packaging Proofing?

Detecting difficult to see variations: Packaging designs often involve intricate details. Comparison tools can zoom in on specific areas, making it easier to detect even the smallest changes in text, images, or color.
Streamlining Collaboration: In a collaborative design process, multiple individuals may provide feedback. Comparison tools streamline this feedback process, enabling efficient collaboration by highlighting exactly where changes have occurred.
Reducing Human Error: Human proofreaders may inadvertently miss changes or introduce errors. Comparison tools eliminate the risk of oversight, providing a systematic and objective approach to proofing.

Martiderm, a Spanish cosmetics company with presence in 45 countries, use Twona X-RAY to review files and compare them against earlier versions to make sure all
changes have been made.
For them, using this comparison tool has proven really useful in working with their external print suppliers, as they have been able stop errors introduced in the designs before they are printed on the boxes and leaflets of their products, saving potential product recalls or reprints of materials to fix the issues.
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Embracing Precision: Integrating Comparison Tools Into Your Workflow

If you aim for an improvement of your artwork management process, using a comparison/proofing tool is a good start, as it gives your team a quality tool to improve accuracy. However, it may be interesting to consider a proper evaluation of tools and their capabilities, offerings, and whether going for a tool that also will help you improve your complete workflow may be an more interesting choice.

Selecting the Right Tools: Explore the available comparison tools in the market and choose one that aligns with your specific packaging design needs. If you are interested in ours, check our website or contact us for a demo.

Integration with Workflow Management Systems: To maximize efficiency, consider how these comparison tools integrate seamlessly with your existing workflow management system. This integration ensures a cohesive design and approval process. Our comparison tool is offered as a stand alone solution (X-RAY) but also as part of our Artwork management tool (Twona AMS).

Training and Adoption: Properly train your team on the use of comparison tools, emphasizing their importance in achieving accurate and error-free packaging proofing. We offer ad-hoc training for our comparison tool to your team, using our template files or your own files if you wish to.

Accuracy of your packaging design is non-negotiable. Comparison tools help you elevate packaging proofing to a level of precision that safeguards your brand, reduces costly errors, and ensures that the final product hitting the shelves is a true representation of your vision. So, what are you waiting for?

October 6, 2023March 1, 2024

Forget Email Attachments: Modernizing Packaging Approval with Digital Solutions

Picture this scenario: endless email threads, multiple attachments in several emails as the size limit is reached, wrong attachments sent, lots of back-and-forth to explain that the attachment was wrong and here is the correct one, version confusion… If this is your day-to-day, you can see how it is a recipe for delays, miscommunication, and even the occasional oversight that can have far-reaching consequences.

Thankfully, you can stop that chain of inefficiency and elevate packaging approval processes to new heights of effectiveness—using digital solutions that go beyond the limitations of email attachments.

Rephrase

The Drawbacks of Using Email for Approvals

While email has earned its place for business communication, it proves inefficient when managing essential tasks such as approving packaging designs due to several shortcomings:

1. Disconnected Communication: Keeping track of context and accurately recording changes can be tough due to the scattered nature of email threads.

2. Confusion with version management: The presence of multiple attachments with nearly identical names could breed misunderstanding, chiefly when various editions are being scrutinized at the same time.

3. Sluggish replies: Overfilled inboxes or a surge of incoming emails may result in important messages being missed, leading to holdups in the approval process.

4. Ambiguous Responsibility: Figuring out who has examined or greenlit a design at any moment proves difficult, rendering accountability a fizzy concept.

The Digital Leap: What Modern Approvals Demand

Fortunately, there are digital solutions that tackle the challenges of packaging approvals. These solutions offer a range of features that revolutionize the approval process:

1. Collaborative Workspace: Imagine a virtual space where stakeholders can congregate, review designs, provide feedback, and hold discussions—all within a single, organized platform.

2. Version Tracking: A digital system maintains a comprehensive history of design versions, enabling easy comparison and minimizing errors caused by outdated versions.

3. Transparent Approval Paths: Digital solutions allow you to define and visualize approval paths clearly, ensuring designs navigate through the correct channels without bottlenecks.

4. Automated Reminders: Say goodbye to chasing approvals. Automated notifications ensure that reviewers are prompted at the right time, reducing approval cycle times. You can also choose to send manual reminders.

5. Accountability and Audit Trails: Each action is recorded, creating an audit trail that clarifies who did what, when, and why—an essential feature for compliance-driven industries.

The Transformative Impact: Efficiency and Precision Redefined

Do you need to hear about the advantages of using such a digital solution ?

1. Streamlined Workflows: With collaborative workspaces, design reviews become intuitive and streamlined, eliminating the confusion associated with email chains.

2. Rapid Turnaround: Design approvals take less time, enhancing your ability to bring products to market swiftly and seize new opportunities.

3. Improved Accuracy: Version control hiccups and miscommunications become a thing of the past, reducing the chances of errors slipping through the cracks.

4. Compliance : Industries subject to regulations can breathe easier knowing that an accountable, traceable process is in place.

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So, are you ready to leave the era of email attachments behind and embark on a journey towards efficient, compliant, and precise packaging approvals?

If you are, please give a try to our approvals solution and then, contact us to help you implement it for your team.

March 24, 2023

Streamlining Proofreading: Tips and Tools for Artwork Specialists and Designers

Proofreading is a critical step in the packaging and labeling process, ensuring that the final output is accurate, compliant, and visually appealing. With the complexity of modern packaging and the need for precision, specially in the pharma and food industries, streamlining the proofreading process is essential. Below you can find some tips and tools to help improve your proofreading process, with a focus on the benefits of using Twona X-RAY as a powerful proofing solution (which also has a free version).

3 Golden Tips for Streamlining Proofreading

Develop a systematic approach: Establish a consistent proofreading process that includes a checklist of items to review, such as text content, layout, color, and other visual elements. Write an SOP for your specific artwork types. Identify the technical specs of your designs (outlined, open, images, number of columns) and define the right approach for your artworks to ensure a smooth proofreading experience.
Collaborate effectively: Work closely with your team to ensure everyone is on the same page and has a clear understanding of those SOPs and has had proper training.
Leverage technology: Do not check artwork changes “by eye”. Use a (preferably web based) tool to check your artworks and compare PDF to PDF, PDF to Word, PDF to Photo and more.

Twona X-RAY: A Powerful Proofing Solution for Artwork Specialists and Designers

Twona X-RAY is a modern SaaS proofing solution designed for highly regulated verticals (like pharma, food, retail and printing) to help artwork specialists, designers, regulatory affair specialists and quality assurance managers streamline their proofreading process. The software offers several key advantages that make it an ideal choice for packaging and labeling in highly regulated markets:

SaaS Web-Based System

As a SaaS web-based system, Twona X-RAY allows users to access the platform from anywhere with an internet connection, making it a convenient and flexible solution for remote teams and professionals on the go (yes, it also works on your phone and tablet). The cloud-based system also ensures that updates and improvements are automatically applied, keeping your proofing tools at the forefront of industry standards.

Computer Vision Technology

Twona X-RAY leverages advanced computer vision technology to align photos and master files, ensuring that all visual elements are accurately compared during the proofreading process. This innovative feature not only reduces manual work but also minimizes the risk of errors or discrepancies. It has been design with a few key use cases in mind:

Print proof checking: take a picture with your phone of that freshly printed proof and compare it on the spot with your master file before you give the go ahead with thousands of prints. The computer vision algorithm will perform a deep analysis to transform your photo and match it against your master design file.
Keyline alignment: automatically align an empty keyline with a completed design to check that the right keyline has been used.
Automatic alignment: when your provider rotates, changes or scales your design to match the printing machine, X-RAY will automatically align your files so you can easily compare them.

Text Comparison and Visual Graphic Comparison

The software offers robust text comparison and visual graphic comparison capabilities, allowing users to quickly and easily identify any differences between the original design and the final output. This ensures that all text and graphic elements are reviewed thoroughly, resulting in a higher level of accuracy and compliance. X-RAY can also extract text using OCR to allow you to check even the most difficult jobs.

Validated and Full Traceability

Twona X-RAY is a validated solution, ensuring that it meets the stringent requirements of the pharmaceutical, food, and retail industries. The software also provides full traceability, maintaining a complete record of all proofreading activities, including changes made, user information, and timestamps. This level of transparency and accountability is invaluable for organizations seeking to maintain compliance with industry regulations.

Ready to try it yourself?

February 7, 2023

Packaging perspective correction (with your phone)

Perspective Correction Algorithm for Cell Phone Photography

Cell phone photography has become increasingly popular in industrial and business applications in recent years, with the increase in resolution, accuracy and connectivity. One of the biggest challenges with cell phone photography when applied to Quality Control is correcting the perspective of an image. This is especially important when comparing a master design file with a printed a packaging material. A perspective correction algorithm can be used to address this issue.

The perspective correction algorithm is a software-based solution that adjusts the perspective of an image to make it look as though it was taken from a straight-on angle (thus, correcting the perspective distortion). This is achieved by identifying key points in the image, such as the corners or the edges of a packaging material, and adjusting the image to align these points. The process follows a set of determined steps:

Extract key points on both the design and the photo
Match those points to identify corredpondance
Calculate the required transformation
Modify the photography according to the calculated parameters to obtain a corrected image

The use of a perspective correction algorithm is especially important when overlaying a cell phone photo on a packaging design. This can be particularly useful when comparing a master design file (the artwork) with a photography taken with a cellphone of the printed material before it goes into full production. Being able to identify wether the approved master artwork corresponds exactly with the printed material helps reduce (or even eliminate) the risk of printing a packaging material from an un-approved or modified version. This sometimes happens when a stakeholder takes the liberty to modify an artwork for technical reasons and by mistake, something else goes amiss.

Content-based quality checks on printed packaging are crucial to avoid product recalls.
Every Quality Person in the world

There are industrial applications that involve in-line high resolution cameras to compare printed materials with master files. However, they are usually applied for Quality Control on already approved files. Therefore, being able to check before giving the green light for production on a print proof file has tremendous value, specially for highly regulated environments.

If you want to know more about how the perspective correction algorithm works, don’t hesitate to get in touch and we will be happy to chat with you. In the meantime, just to prove this is possible and valuable, you can see how the algorithm works with a really difficult case.

February 2, 2023February 2, 2023

Mistakes on medical leaflets

The packaging of pharmaceutical products is a crucial aspect of the industry. It serves not only as a protective barrier for the product, but also as a means of communication between the releaser and the consumer. The releaser, a pharmaceutical laboratory, must ensure the existence of an appropriate pharmacovigilance system that allows him to assume his responsibilities and obligations in relation to the pharmaceutical specialties he markets and ensure the adoption of appropriate measures when necessary.

Risks and consequences

One of the most important components of pharmaceutical packaging is the leaflet, also known as the patient information leaflet (PIL), which provides information about the product, including its intended use, side effects, and usage instructions.

To check the content of a leaflet thoroughly is critical, as even a small typo, missing text, or added text can have significant consequences for the patient and the releaser.

Why?

It is important to avoid errors in the leaflet because they can result in medication errors. For example, if a typo results in the incorrect dosage instructions being printed on the leaflet, the patient may take too much or too little of the medication, which can have serious consequences for their health. Similarly, if important information about side effects is missing or incorrect, the patient may not be fully aware of the risks associated with taking the medication. Believe me, there are side effects which patient and relatives should be fully aware from small possible irritations to a tendency to gambling, side effect that is only revealed after clinical trials for obvious reasons.

Deviation in the leaflet can also result in recalls and legal issues for the releaser. A recall is a costly and time-consuming process, as it requires to retrieve all the affected products from the market and replace them with new, corrected versions. In some cases, the recall may result in significant financial losses, as well as a damaged reputation and loss of trust from consumers.

As a designer and knowing the sensitivity of this situation, the corresponding procedure, quality documents and relevant tools are essential. Just thinking about the lack of an appropriate software 15 years ago makes me dizzy.

How to avoid mistakes

In order to avoid errors in the leaflet, it is important to have a robust quality control process in place. This may involve multiple rounds of review and testing by different employees within the company, we call it four eyes principle. The process should also include a thorough review of the final product before it is released to the market, in order to catch any last-minute changes or mistakes.

In conclusion, checking the content of a leaflet in the packaging of pharmaceutical products is a crucial step in ensuring patient safety and avoiding costly recalls and damage to brand image. By having a robust quality control process in place, releasers can avoid errors and ensure that the information provided in the leaflet is accurate and up-to-date. Patients can also play a role reporting any discrepancies to their healthcare provider. By working together, the industry and consumers can ensure that the information provided in the leaflet is accurate and that patients receive the best possible care.

January 30, 2023January 31, 2023

Artwork Coordination: an often undervalued, complex role

Photo by Matt Bero on Unsplash
Photo of a business person with headset on, a backpack, wearing a shirt, crossing a zebra pad juggling some balls — *Photo by Matt Bero on Unsplash*

The role of an artwork coordinator in industries such as food, pharmaceutical or retail is crucial for ensuring that the packaging design of products is consistent, accurate, and meets all legal and regulatory requirements. However, this position does not always get the appreciation it deserves.

Being an artwork coordinator for the packaging design of products comes with its own set of difficulties and challenges, which can range from managing a large volume of designs, to ensuring the accuracy of information and meeting tight deadlines, amongst others:

Managing a large volume of designs: Artwork coordinators are responsible for simultaneously managing a large number of designs, both for large product launches and small packaging changes, which can be a time-consuming and complex process.
Maintaining design consistency: Maintaining consistency in design across multiple products and packaging, as well as keeping up to date with customer input and market inspiration (not for Pharma products, where all is more regulated) is crucial for creating a strong brand identity.
Accuracy of information: The accuracy of information on packaging is crucial for ensuring product safety and compliance with legal and regulatory requirements. This is specially critical in the FMCG and pharmaceutical industries, where errors can lead to severe consequences on the consumer side. Products that are sold across multiple countries, with multi-lingual labels, represent an extra complexity on this front, to make sure that all information is accurate and meets the local standards.
Meeting tight deadlines: Coordinators often have to work with very tight deadlines to ensure that products are available for sale in a timely manner.
Collaboration and communication: Effective collaboration and communication between different departments and stakeholders is essential for ensuring the success of a packaging design project.
Approval management: this communication and collaboration amongst departments and external parties such as external clients, regulatory bodies, or printers, takes an extra step when it comes to managing the approvals on the artworks. Dealing with both internal and external feedback rounds adds an extra layer of risk in making sure that the correct files are used when it comes to creating the final product that goes in the shelves.
Control of document versions and files in general: don’t you hate it when you receive a final version and then it turns out it is no the final one, amendments are made and you lose track of which file is the one that should be used? With so many projects ongoing and multiple approvals needed, it is one artwork’s coordinator nightmare to make sure the files are correctly stored and identified.

These challenges show how important and complex the role of artwork coordinator can be. Luckily, nowadays, there are tools that can assist an artwork coordinator in their daily tasks to make them more successful and efficient.

An artwork management system (AMS) can help automate and streamline the design process, through custom workflows that will take some of the repetitive tasks out of their plate, and giving visibility to other stakeholders when they need to provide input or approve. Such technology would also make sure that designs used are the correct ones, by providing a central repository for storing and sharing artworks, keeping version control on all files. Through an audit trail on changes, it becomes much more simple to track where a design is at any given time, and who may have performed a change, taking action from there.

Artwork Management System – Twona

Reaching deadlines becomes easier, as the approval process can be automated and they only need to make sure to check feedback when completed. Because the tool would provide real-time updates on the status of designs, they can focus on more valuable activities other than chasing and reminding people. As a central platform for sharing designs and communicating with stakeholders, and AMS would improve collaboration and communication, as everyone is involved and has visibility over the process. Furthermore, additional tools such as artwork comparison/proofing systems can help coordinators verify that the information on packaging is accurate and up-to-date, reducing the risk of errors and mistakes.

The role definition does not need to change. Its beauty is that it interlocks so many areas of the packaging design process. However, it can be more appreciated when the right technology is used to support their multiple tasks, as it will help professionalize and standardize the artwork coordinator function.

August 30, 2022February 3, 2023

Improve your quality (of your work and your Artworks)

Photo by Twona
Depicts a the design of a wrapper of a chocolate tablet, turned 90 degrees clockwise, with red markings when there are changes from two versions of the artwork. — *Photo by Twona*

One of the areas where we have achieved more speed, and a reduction in the number of errors, is the quality area.

Does this sound familiar?

Three people are reviewing the content of a new leaflet.
One of them reads the text from the Medicines Agency mentioning the format (e.g bold, italics, indent…).
The two others visually review a printed Artwork.
The whole process takes at least 45 minutes.

Imagine the amount of deviations that a isual check can have, without mentioning the waste of personnel time!

This (real) experience happened a while ago, and nowadays, there are tools in the market that help with this review. Do you think the one you use is quick and efficient enough?

Here is where technology makes our life much easier, as we have comparison tools at all levels, the graphical and the content side, to check Artworks. We always use them internally, before our clients do their own checks, both by the designer who is producing the Artwork and by a colleague in the QA team. This is what we call the 4-eye principle.

Twona Article — *Photo by alessio-lin–6LYjG0H32E*

Twona X-RAY

Our experience? With the content comparison we are able to review a new text in 5 minutes. Similarly, reviewing changes that we received on an Artwork graphically becomes a much simpler task.

Twona X-RAY’s graphical comparison can visually recognize documents, automatically adjust them to overlap and make the revision process much more efficient Some critical examples for us have been comparing an Artwork with a press-proof that has a different orientation, in which some technical details, such as a Laetus code, has been inserted.

I would like to invite you to try our comparison tool, and calculate how much time and resources you could be saving on your daily Artwork control and review process.

If you still have paper piling up on your desk , going to the office is mandatory to be able to do your work or have the feeling that there are things that can be improved, do not hesitate to share with us your needs, and we can help you make that leap to succeed in a changing and more demanding future.