Enfocus just earlier this week released a press release announcing the immediate availability of a new version of PitStop Professional 08 which is fully compatible with Adobe’s Acrobat 9. In part it reads;

“Enfocus has built its reputation and market leadership on the concept of delivering the most reliable and easy-to-implement automation with unprecedented control over PDF workflows,” adds Mr. van Driessche. “These latest announcements reinforce our ongoing commitment to our users around the globe as we continue to enhance the industry’s most comprehensive suite of PDF-based tools.”
SOURCE: http://www.enfocus.com/pressrelease.php?id=4842

There is an interesting article titled, “When do you need to preflight; the ROI discussion” which has some excellent points about preflighting. for instance, they say;

“The need for preflighting depends on the workflow and the job type. Magazine publishers will want to preflight early in the publishing process because they have no idea where the layout files they receive (adverts, classifieds, etc., for example) come from, and what the skill level of the layout designer of the file was.

Preflight Overview

I a. What is Preflighting?

Preflighting is the process of checking digital files for potential problems prior to output (Exporting to PDF or Printing). This can also be a process best done on native or source file types, such as Adobe InDesign, Illustrator or QuarkXpress, everytime before saving or sending the job onto another party- simple quality assurance. Special software such as FlightCheck Professional from Markzware or PitStop from Enfocus can be used, or the process can be done manually, often called the eye-ball method.

There is a great thread running over on PrintPlanet.com titled, “Flight Check Pro vs. Pit Stop?” where the initial poster asks, “which one is best? And why?” The responses were interesting and for the most part accurate, such as;

“Can you preflight Quark, illustrator, eps, indesign or photoshop files in Pitstop?

That’s why my vote go to Flightcheck.”
Posted, ‘Ryan’ (implying that FlightCheck can preflight numerous file formats)

‘HappyFriday’ posted;
“We run Flight Check Prof on our native files and PDFs. When I have time, I often preflight PDFs in both Flight Check and Acrobat.

More and more printers and publishers are reverting from demanding print-ready PDF jobs only. PDF and the various standards out there like PDF/X-1a, PDF/X-3, PDF and the great work by the GWG (Ghent PDF Workgroup) are excellent initiatives, but not the cure-all. The reasons for this have to do with preflighting and last minute file corrections. Editing a PDF is not a trivial task. Yes, a prepress expert well trained with tools like Enfocus PitStop or Callas PDFToolbox can get away with some, but not all changes. (We will cover this in a future blog post.)

Preflight, in the graphic arts sense, is the process of checking a digital document before it goes to plate, print or otherwise output (exported - such as to PDF). It traditionally is a way to check quality before going to the printing press, digital or otherwise, but can also be used to check online banners and gifs. Preflight is best done on the source document, such as those created in Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, QuarkXPress or Corel!Draw as some examples, before becoming a PDF (Portable Document Format). Similar to a pilot whom walks around and performs a pre take-off pre-flight check, preflighting for designers and prepress operators should be a must.