Was a PDF placed in the Adobe InDesign CC 2019 macOS print job that you’re processing? Find images and details (file type, resolution, bleed, etc.), by preflighting via FlightCheck Mac, a stand-alone application that can check Adobe files and other file types for print quality:
Alaina Shull, graphic designer (& beyond) at Don.com, shares her experience with a PDF file placed in an InDesign CC version file, when using Markzware‘s FlightCheck Mac to preflight InDesign, check images, check image resolution, and more.
DAVID: Do you have any recent real-life stories about how FlightCheck saved the day, or interesting things you might have found through FlightCheck?
ALAINA: Actually, yes, there is something very interesting that kind of helped our entire team learn, at one time, because we actually didn’t really have any idea that this was a thing, because we don’t often put PDFs in our InDesign documents for catalogs. So, for this specific, we came out with a new a brand new concept. It’s called, “Shift,” so it’s kind of like a trend magazine, to go along with the industry and what’s popular in the industry right now and everything like that. So, we got a lot of ads coming in from suppliers.
So, I went to put in one about my normal closing routine, you know, stretching everything out for the bleeds. And, you know, I took the document, dropped it on FlightCheck, but, because of the PDFs in the document, it took the PDF and broke it up into each individual little element that is in the PDF. And I almost freaked out, because everything on the screen was red.
So, I’m like, “Oh, my God! What’s wrong with this document? And I was pulling over the other designers that have tons more experience than I do and I’m like, “Did I break it?” Like “What’s wrong with it? And they kind of looked further into it and they’re like, “Everything has the same image name.” And I’m like, “Well, maybe this is coming from the same image.”
So, we discussed it with the guy that does our printing for us and, you know, he checked the documents and everything and was like, “Oh, no, it’s fine.” What FlightCheck was doing is it was pulling apart just all of the elements and now we know how to process a PDF. So, we’re like, “Oh, okay. So, this is totally normal, and it’s just letting us know the resolution of everything that goes in it.”
DAVID: Right.
ALAINA: So, I mean, we all kind of learned it, now. So, you know, the next time we go through all the PDF stuff, you know, we know what to look for. We’ll be like, “Okay, it’s cool. So, this is how this works.”
DAVID: Yeah, cool. Nice.
ALAINA: Yeah. This is a learning experience for the team as a whole. Yeah.
DAVID: Well, I think that’s what you mentioned before, earlier, and that’s what I know a lot of people use FlightCheck for is, like, an educational thing, amongst the team, you know, just like you said.
ALAINA: Mm-hmm.
DAVID: Keep everybody on the same wavelength, so to speak.
ALAINA: Yeah, yeah, pretty much. So, I mean, it was nice to see people that have been at this for, you know, 10, 15 years or so, like, still learning more about, you know, what we do.
DAVID: Yeah, cool. So, it’s… Would you recommend FlightCheck for other graphic designers out there?
ALAINA: Oh, absolutely, especially if, you know, you’re doing catalog production or any sort of printing stuff. Yeah, I’d definitely recommend it. It shows you a more in-depth view of, you know, your documents and, like, shows you things that other pre-flight things that come with InDesign and such doesn’t show you.
DAVID: Alaina, thank you very much.
ALAINA: Oh, yeah. Thank you for having me. It’s been a pleasure.
DAVID: Thank you for sharing your experiences with other potential or existing FlightCheck users.
ALAINA: Yeah, absolutely, not a problem.
DAVID: Alright. Take care. I know. Stay warm out there.
ALAINA: Yep.
DAVID: Try FlightCheck, over on markzware.com today, and see why Alaina and Don.com love it so much. Get everybody on the same page. Preflight and package, now out with CC 2019 support, Markzware‘s FlightCheck.
Markzware‘s FlightCheck helps to find document errors, so they can be corrected, before printing. For more information, visit the Markzware website today.
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