Ensure an Error-Free Print Image and PDF
Markzware, the inventors of FlightCheck, the patented preflighting technology to check documents in many file formats for print quality assurance, realizes that we work and live in confusing and complex times. This is especially true for graphic designers, photographers, illustrators and other graphics professionals, who are finding that the need to preflight before printing is greater than ever.
As one prepares a digital file, steps need to be taken to make sure to include missing fonts and missing images, package fonts with files, convert colors to CMYK, and check trapping for accuracy. Preflighting digital file elements, before PDF creation, increases the chance of error-free output. FlightCheck preflighting software from Markzware scans files thoroughly and provides preflight reports to warn of possible printing issues.
FlightCheck can check InDesign, QuarkXPress, CorelDRAW, Illustrator, PDF, Microsoft Publisher, and more, and can notify users of more than 150 potential prepress problems. Printing pros say the best way to deal with missing fonts, improper trapping and scaling, print image problems, and other prepress problems is to prevent them from occurring in the first place. Once you preflight what needs to be checked in the native digital file, you can continue PDF creation and ensure error-free printing.
Three easy preflighting tips to improve your workflow:
1. Speak to your clients and provide information on what they should supply to ensure print-ready files. Consider furnishing customized preflight profiles or supplying them with a preflight tool which spots problems before files are imaged to film or plate or converted to PDF format.
2. Allow enough time to review projects properly before output, and give clients enough time to fix prepress problems. Haste indeed makes waste.
3. Discuss issues such as ink density, dot gain and ink spread on the media that will be imprinted. Take these values and program them into your preflight tool to ensure that prepress guidelines are met.
Jobs submitted for print often include at least one error such as a missing font or an RGB image in a CMYK job. That can lead to the time-consuming process of sending files back and forth between print buyer and provider, with both parties believing the other is responsible for noticing and fixing errors. FlightCheck offers the solution.
Many print providers and service bureaus say preflighting occurs too late in the workflow. Perhaps the main advantage of preflighting is that it enables the process to begin sooner – before files leave the desktops of graphic designers. Graphic designers benefit by correcting files on their own equipment, improving turnaround times and preventing possible charges from printers. Printers benefit by receiving print-ready files that reduce downtime. Use FlightCheck by Markzware to preflight image files, then improve your print image, and, consequently, your company’s image.
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