Valentin from OCHEDA Graphic Creatives recently called in with a small support question. In assisting him, I learned of his great zeal for using FlightCheck Professional on every job that he produces in QuarkXPress or Adobe InDesign. SO much so that we asked if we could interview him to learn more about his graphic design workflow and how he works with preflighting, PDF and DTP layout applications. Watch the English interview here:

If embedded video does not show up, click here. Continues below…

Some interesting facts from Valentin:

• * He ALWAYS first preflights than makes a PDF

We work and live in confusing and complex times. This is especially true for those who are involved in graphic design, photography, illustration and the other dozen or so disciplines that make up the graphics world.

As we prepare digital files steps need to be taken to make sure missing fonts and images are included, fonts are with the files, colors are converted to CMYK, and trapping is correct. Preflighting all aspects of digital files before PDFs are created increases the chance of error-free output.

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.

Have you ever had a QuarkXpress project go bad on you? Could not open it, was crashing or gave errors like bad file format [70] -70, [39] or [108]? You are not alone and you have no need to stand as such, for Markzware has a fantastic tool for fixing or recovery bad Quark files called MarkzTools. Watch how easy it is to salvage your damaged or dead XPress file via this video demo:

Wow — it has been over 15 years since I worked as a print production manager for a large advertising agency in California. Computer-To-Plate (CTP) was starting to garner industry buzz, and in my role, I had to best determine how to take digital creative files, produce them internally and ensure that once they were sent off to the printer or a publication, for example, they would work — meaning, they would render on press the way we expected them to and our clients, the advertisers, were pleased with the results.

Even though the technologies enabling businesses to create documents have become more accessible, there remains a hidden cost in the generation of print and electronic media—a cost easily offset with some simple tools and best practices

Perhaps you’ve seen the commercials by print giants like Xerox and Hewlett-Packard, in which they espouse how cheap print has become? Indeed, the cost to generate color print these days is, in fact, much less expensive for businesses than it was just a few short years ago.

Your in-plant is slick. You’ve got the latest and greatest in print engines and a stealthy prepress workflow. But, what good is it when the front end of the process is replete with bad files — customer - supplied content that’s poorly prepared and requires time and expense to fix?

This is a problem many printing organizations — and in-plants, instant print shops, large-format print suppliers and general commercial printing companies — face today. Content coming into many printing plants just isn’t good.

“A revolution is waging in the design and publishing industries. Workflow responsibilities are shifting and graphic artists are wearing many more hats than a decade ago,” says Mary Gay Marchese, public relations director for Markzware, a Santa Ana-based company that provides a wide range of preflighting solutions.

“With the advent of CTP and an increasing demand to re-purpose content electronically to CDs or the web, for example, creative professionals find that they can no longer realistically focus on just design. Increasingly, they are being asked to take on additional technical challenges that once were the domain of the prepress group, like preflighting and preparing final content files for distribution to electronic media or print.

July 7th, 2008

by Jeff Gamet