It was a little more than a year ago—while at the annual Design Thinkers conference hosted by the Registered Graphic Design Association in Toronto—when Michel Kurita was introduced to the Adobe Creative Suite and Adobe InDesign. Prior to the event, Kurita had been using QuarkXPress to create everything from reports and brochures to packaging, point-of-purchase displays, and trade-show collateral for the Canadian government. Kurita is a senior graphic designer, design and creative products development, Industry Canada, Government of Canada.

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.

In Preflighting 101 - Part 1; Preflight Overview we went over the basics of what preflighting is for designers, publishers and printers. Today we will get into what some of the problems or common issues are, starting in the fonts area.

II Common Preflight Problems

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.

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.

A few years ago, printed pieces were created using strips of text that were pasted on art boards. These strips of paper were bound to the board with wax or rubber cement. Known as “cold type,” it wasn’t until the early ’90s that most organizations began to rely on page layout programs. Today, the freedom computer programs allow is as varied as your imagination.

“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.

Mistakes do happen. Fonts, color and images quality are the prime culprits that damage smooth print workflows. These problems are just some of the topics covered as part of the Graphic Arts Institute [GAI] training program in San Francisco.

Located in the Northern California Print Center, which also is home to the Printing Industries of Northern California [PINC] and a number of other print-related businesses, the GAI’s in-plant uses a four-color 20-inch Heidelberg Speedmaster press to produce fliers, brochures, booklets and envelopes in print runs up to 8,000 units. Many of these printed pieces include information about PINC’s and GAI’s health program and health insurance program.

Just over a decade ago the way we produce print was irrevocably altered. The offset world became enlightened by computer-to-plate (CTP) manufacturing, and among quick print and copy establishments, digital production printing revolutionized their business model.

The transition from analog to digital in the print process happened virtually overnight — at least for print suppliers. They had to make capital investments in new digital tools. For print buyers, content creators and retail customers, the learning curve has been significantly steeper. Suddenly, they weren’t being asked to submit camera-ready content; rather, they were being asked for digital files.