What you (preflight) check is what you get (wyciwyg)
Pity the poor souls that buy flood insurance after their homes have flooded. “Better late than never” can be a costly philosophy. “Better safe than sorry” makes more sense, doesn’t it?
The same logic applies to today’s modernized printing industry. Going direct-to-plate with digital technology means that even the slightest error can be costly, in terms of both time and money. Time is money, after all. You can’t afford to lose any, and with a simple preflight quality control process, you don’t have to.
As you’d expect, the buzz word “preflight” originated in the aviation industry. NASA engineers wouldn’t dream of launching a space vehicle without a thorough check of every square millimeter. The airline industry makes it standard practice to ensure that every item on a preflight checklist is inspected before takeoff.
What you check is what you check! If, like most instant and small commercial printers, your workload of digital jobs is on the rise, you may also find that mistakes and glitches that “break” the job can cost you the time and expense that digital technology is supposed to be saving. I you feel that preflight checking and verification is a time-consuming “extra-step,” think again.
Making preflight verification part of your standard procedures can greatly reduce wasted film, wasted output, wasted paper, wasted money and wasted time. Preflighting does not impede workflow; it increases productivity and efficiency. It’s not just the insurance before the flood; it can prevent floods entirely.
Tags: FlightCheck, Markzware, preflighting, prepress, Workflow