In response to a detailed post on Adobe InDesign CS Live Preflight by Rufus Deuchler, worldwide evangelist for Adobe InDesign CS:

Markzware is the U.S. Patent holder and inventor of preflight technology. With over 15 years of experience and vast resources within the print, publishing and graphic design markets, Markzware is in a unique position.

Adobe InDesign‘s CS4 (and CS5) “Live Preflight” feature seems a necessary inclusion within the InDesign application. That is, mostly for an ‘insurance’ purpose. Then, whenever documents created within Adobe InDesign CS have a problem upon document output, Adobe can point to this feature. Could this be printing insurance more for Adobe InDesign than for the graphic designers?

Years ago, Markzware developed an in-flight tool, FlightCheck Studio (originally HawkEye), which received rave reviews. However, our experience found that graphic designers who use InDesign CS, seldom use preflight. The reason is that performing ‘mechanical checks’ is not in the DNA of graphic designers or creative professionals. They tend to design and create the best work they can to market and sell products. Then, as quick as the designer is finished with one project, they are off to the next! Designers and creatives, on average, do not have time to preflight. (Or there may be an attitude of “As a professional designer, I don’t make mistakes”.)

Now, many are asking the question: ‘Since InDesign CS has Live Preflighting do I still need FlightCheck?’
The short answer: Yes. A longer answer can partially be found at InDesignSecrets.com:
In addition to the reasons cited above, the InDesign CS Live Preflighting has shortcomings which do not include the ability to:

• Check Four Color Text
• Check Bleed/trim hazard
• Check Profile Error reporting
• Share the Preflight profile with Acrobat
• Check Fonts not allowed
• Download and share Custom profiles
• Check Non-Proportional Scaling
• Quickly provide preflight results
  Source: InDesignSecrets.com

FlightCheck has been specifically engineered, for designers and creatives, as well as for print and publishing providers. (See FlightCheck videos.) What’s more, FlightCheck, a stand-alone application, bridges the communication gap between designers and print professionals.

For example, the “Inability to share the Preflight profile with Acrobat,” and “Inability for Custom profiles to be shared and downloaded” issues are solved by FlightCheck’s Ground Controls sets. FlightCheck Ground Controls (see Ground Controls videos) may be shared with anyone in the print workflow. Furthermore, FlightCheck can do broad-based analysis of supported versions in a wide range of file formats! These include:

• Adobe InDesign
• Acrobat PDF
• Illustrator
• Photoshop
• QuarkXPress
• and many other file types.

(FlightCheck is your one-stop preflighting application to preflight Adobe and other document types!)

For years, FlightCheck has been second to none for all aspects of the print workflow, from design to printing press. Adobe’s Live Preflight is certainly necessary, as part of a larger Adobe InDesign CS package.

Adobe’s Live Preflight helps print designers and creatives in several ways and provides education on how to prepare a print job. I wonder, though, if Adobe InDesign CS users are actually using Live Preflight on that level? And, by the same token, “Are printers suddenly receiving perfect files?”

To expect designers to use Live Preflight, be alerted to numerous, often technical, complicated problems, and fix them is a lot to ask. From my experience, the average designer performs a surface check, then sends the digital piece to the production/print department for further ‘mechanical’ evaluation and correction. Sometimes, “the print job” is just sent to the print shop.

I expect graphic designers and creatives will explore Live Preflight. Once they become aware of it, they may be curious about FlightCheck or other preflight/postflight tools in the marketplace for years. Some may be surprised that FlightCheck can preflight Adobe InDesign CS Master Collection files, for instance. The fact remains that, not only do cautious pilots check before take-off, they also check during flight and after landing the plane.

You can buy Markzware’s preflight solution via the FlightCheck page. See more printing solutions on the Markzware Products page. Click here to join the Markzware Mailing List.

Adobe InDesign CS Live Preflight and FlightCheck