Adobe Creative Suite 4 or CS4 has been officially announced. It appears to be an Upgrade largely focused on web and multi-media designers, yet delves into some production stream-lining as well. In this print-production area, InDesign CS4 itself does appear to have some interesting things for layout artists and preflight operators alike. Chiefly what they are now calling ‘Live Preflighting‘:
“Preflight while you design. Continuous preflighting alerts you to potential production problems in real time so you can quickly navigate to a problem, fix it directly in layout, and keep working.” SOURCE: http://www.adobe.com/products/indesign/features/?view=topnew
There is a new article online over at it-enquirer.com, which goes into some interesting details about why, how and which preflight tool should or could be used and where within your workflow. In part it says,
“Markzware has been developing FlightCheck for years, in several formats –including a highly efficient and successful online service– to accommodate for printed output, checking for trapping errors and compliance with standards such as PDF/X, for example. FlightCheck can be deployed early in the publishing process, which theoretically saves money as errors are discovered earlier and can be corrected before they cause trouble at the printing press.”
SOURCE: http://www.it-enquirer.com/main/ite/more/preflighting/
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.)
This Drupa may prove nothing else than the show where they all just got along. Take this example, which includes some form of preflighting (Let’s call that postflighting maybe.); Xerox’s FreeFlow workflow collection of approved vendor solutions and products which now includes FUJIFILM Workflow XMF and Heidelberg Prinect as possible connections to the extended Xerox flow.
The FUJIFILM Workflow XMF has some interesting possibilities, as this article on WhatTheyThink.com highlighted;
“XMF provides pre-flighting, native file conversion to PDF, color management, single-click imposition, and job management capabilities. It also enables electronic proofing with a three-dimensional view of the job, permitting the proofer to flip through virtual pages to check flow and alignment as well as color.”
SOURCE: WhatTheyThink.com
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.
SANTA ANA, California — April 22, 2008 — Markzware, the inventor of preflighting and data-conversion software leader, today announced the release and immediate availability of the FlightCheck upgrade v6.11. FlightCheck is Markzware flagship prepress application that manages quality control of digital files destined for print or electronic distribution.
This FlightCheck v6.11 update is a maintenance release that fixes reported issues and improves several features and other refinements to this award winning preflighting solution. Detailed information on all of the changes and improvements implemented in FlightCheck v6.11 can be found at:
Hello, my name is David Dilling from Markzware, thanks for joining us today. We are going to go over FlightCheck Professional, Markzware advanced preflight tool in comparison to Adobe built-in preflight within InDesign CS3 and CS2 I believe.
Over the years, we have seen more and more seemingly thinking that they are getting full-fledged preflight if they use Adobe InDesign built-in prefight tool within InDesign. Well, I am here to tell you that simply is not true.
Adobe InDesign?s basic built-in preflighting tools and QuarkXPress 7’s Job Jackets features offer some protection against native file problems.
For basic and small publishing jobs like the DoubleClick that never see a professional printer these built-in features suffice but for large expensive commercial publishing projects, where even your smallest mistakes can be costly, you need the insurance of a professional checker.
Markzware FlightCheck Professional 6 is the best preflighting solution around. (More)
SANTA ANA, California – December 11, 2007 – Markzware, the inventor of preflight and data-conversion software, announced today the release of FlightCheck v6.10. FlightCheck is Markzware’s flagship prepress application that manages quality control of digital files destined for print or electronic distribution.
FlightCheck v6.10 has numerous improvements and updates, including enhanced preflighting performance—up to four times faster than previous versions. The solution also recognizes QuarkXPress 7 files that were not recognized in earlier releases of FlightCheck 6, and adds improved reporting on font paths. In addition, improvements have been made to the software’s PDF Ground Controls. A new “Get More” button, found in the Ground Controls pop-up menu, enables users to immediately download pre-defined Ground Controls based on output intentions and file specifications.
