Galley proof

In printing and publishing, proofs are the preliminary versions of publications meant for review by authors, editors, and proofreaders, often with extra-wide margins.

[4] The primary goal of proofing is to create a tool for verification that the job is accurate separate from the pages produced on the press.

Once a defect-free galley proof was produced, the publishing house requested a number of galley proofs to be run off for distribution to editors and authors for a final reading and corrections to the text before the type was fixed in the case for printing.

At this stage in production, all mistakes are supposed to have been corrected and the pages are set up in imposition for folding and cutting on the press.

Additionally, because final page proofs contain the final pagination, if an index was not compiled at an earlier stage in production, this pagination facilitates compiling a book's index and correcting its table of contents.

[citation needed] They may be marked or stamped on the cover "uncorrected proof", but the recipient is not expected to proofread them, merely to overlook any minor errors of typesetting.