Markzware develops FlightCheck, the patented preflight technology. This pre press software can check documents in many file formats for print quality assurance. This includes print quality control for direct PDF printing and more. FlightCheck scans documents thoroughly and provides a detailed preflight report to ensure that documents print properly.
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. This meant they would render on press the way we expected them to and our clients, the advertisers, were pleased with the results. Seemed like a simple enough challenge at the time, but what I soon discovered was that it was anything but.
It wasn’t as though the process was any more difficult than it was back in the “days of film.” At the agency, we had art directors who mocked up layouts on boards given to me for re-creation in QuarkXPress. I worked with the art directors and others within the agency to make final tweaks to the ads. Then, I had to provide them with the assurance that what I was creating digitally would reproduce in the manner they expected. The digital creation was to have the best print quality to result in quality image printing. The only real difference in the workflow of “those good old days” and today is that we are no longer shipping film – and that is a great thing. Now, FlightCheck can warn of potential printing problems before printing.
However, even though a lot of the processes were the same, accountability for the success or failure of the final print result was shifting. In the days of film, it may have been the primary responsibility of the prepress supplier or printer to make sure the final results were accurate and optimal. In the current days of digital file exchange, it’s a whole new ballgame. Anyone who wants to hit the home run has to realize that it’s not only prepress and print suppliers who must accept accountability. These days, the print buyer and digital file creator assume as much responsibility as manufacturing partners for print quality control. FlightCheck provides print quality control for direct PDF printing and more.
It’s one of the reasons why I got out of the ad production game. I wanted a software tool that would alleviate some of the headaches of digital file workflows. It should make it easier for print buyers and production professionals to ensure print quality. Documents leaving their shops would be intact, have integrity and would produce in the manner that was expected of them. And with the help of Ron Crandall, Markzware was born. FlightCheck grew in popularity, and we became widely known in the print industry as the preflight company.
Preflight and postflight: Defining the terms
The term “preflight” has been adopted by the graphic arts community. It is the blanket or umbrella term that refers to file checking at any stage of the print workflow. FlightCheck solves the essential need to verify file integrity at several points in the process (creative, production, prepress). It helps to distinguish quality control checkpoints with terminology that reflects when and why the file is checked.
Markzware considers the term “preflight” to be specific to the creative process, when digital files are in their native application form. FlightCheck handles preflight. “Postflight,” however, is a subset of preflighting. It refers to file verification that occurs, for example, after the prepress file (usually PDF) is created. It is used to drive prepress processes, such as digital contract proofing, platesetting or digital printing. FlightCheck can also postflight PDF files for direct PDF printing. Distinguishing between preflight and postflight ensures that print buyers and manufacturing partners are clear about when in the workflow quality control should take place. Markzware offers FlightCheck, which can both preflight native files and postflight PDF files for direct PDF printing.
Why do we need to verify digital files at more than one point in the workflow? Some may argue this is a redundancy that digital production and CTP was supposed to alleviate. Similarly, many print buyers and production professionals say, “Why do I need to preflight? I just send my digital files over to the printer. They’re going to check them there anyway.”
Point noted, but we mustn’t minimize the impact to deadlines and the bottom line if a printer receives a problematic file. Consider this analogy: When traveling by plane, a passenger expects to wait in long queues at the single security checkpoint between the terminal and gate. If there were several smaller checkpoints along the path to boarding the plane, long lines could be minimized or eliminated.
While no two digital workflows are alike, there are some commonalities. To illustrate my point, let’s take a look at a typical print buyer/printer relationship. At the customer’s site, you may have an art director who is pulling elements from a variety of sources (images, logos, copy, etc.) and compiling them into a QuarkXPress or InDesign document. FlightCheck handles these file formats and many more. Once the creative forces and others have approved the final page, that native application file is then destined for the printer. It is presumed, not merely hoped, that the native file accompanies a digital proof which represents that file.
At the printer, the file is then manipulated – and sometimes altered in any number of ways. The printer may apply trapping, make textual changes or RIP the file to the file format required to drive their own proofing and plate setting processes. The original native application file sent from the print buyer to the printer should be flawless. All the elements should be in place, with embedded fonts, CMYK graphics and high resolution. This workflow should, then, be relatively seamless, and the file can move through each stage without setbacks.
That’s the ideal preflight process. Now, let’s look at the real world. In the past few years, printers have noted that their customers are certainly becoming more adept at preparing digital files. Still, some report that more than 80 percent of the native application and PDF files received from customers are flawed. If you think about it, that’s an extraordinary percentage of bad files being passed around. These are poorly prepared documents that cost the print buyers both time and money to remedy.
While PDF has been lauded as the print industry savior, remember this: If flaws reside in the native application, they will remain in the PDF, as well. Simply taking your native application to a PDF and direct PDF printing does not ensure the remedy to these problems.
So, yes, most printers will happily accept your digital files – good, bad or otherwise. They’ll happily run it through preflight, make fixes and changes, convert it, postflight the new file and send it to the plate setter or digital press. But, remember, there’s a cost for this. You are paying the printer to find and fix these errors. There is also the potential cost of missed press schedules and distribution deadlines. It’s really a no brainer: Send your printer a bad file, and accept the costs and risks of doing so. Thank goodness for FlightCheck.
Quality control mustn’t be a print buyer’s afterthought. Preflight and postflight technologies are readily available. They are inexpensive and easy to apply to the creative and in-house production workflow. Why take the risk?
FlightCheck is the standard preflight solution for affordable print quality assurance. Try the free FlightCheck demo today and see. More printing solutions are available via the Markzware Products page.
Direct PDF Printing… Distinguish Quality Control.
