Markzware FlightCheck video playlist on MarkzwareTV. See FlightCheck videos like the one below.
Markzware, publisher of FlightCheck, the preflight solution to check documents for quality assurance before printing, has a YouTube channel for prepress at MarkzwareTV. Check out the FlightCheck Testimonials playlist for prepress operators and printers, where everyone can watch, learn, comment and share information online! Here is a FlightCheck video on how to preflight desktop publishing files for prepress layout:
How to Prepress Layout
Use Markzware FlightCheck preflight application to ensure printing quality
Good Day, everybody! David Dilling from Markzware with today’s quick how-to: How to Prepress Layout. How can we get a DTP or desktop publishing layout like Adobe InDesign, QuarkXPress, Photoshop, or in this case, this Adobe Illustrator file ready for prepress? Now, we’re going to cruise over to inkd.com, and as you can see on this particular web page, which I’ll link to, on inkd, they did a full idea on how to prepress a layout, how to get a layout ready for prepress, whether it’s InDesign, QuarkXPress, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, it doesn’t really matter, the same basic principles apply.
First, you’ll see a quick overview of the, well, as they say, four steps of getting a file prepress ready. The four steps are manually checking and adjusting your layout and graphics files in Adobe, Quark, Microsoft-type layout applications.
Step 2 is to preflight your file, preferably with a tool, with a standalone, such as Markzware’s FlightCheck, which will check all major layout types for DTP, or desktop publishing. The second step on how to prepress a layout is to collect your job, to package all used elements, fonts, images, graphics, colors, previews, you know, you name it, required plugins, xtensions, to package all the material from your Photoshop layout, your Illustrator artwork, your Adobe InDesign layout, your QuarkXPress desktop publishing layout, etc. And lastly, creating a preview PDF file.
Now Step 1, the, actually the manual preflight process of how to prepress a layout is essentially largely covered in the next step called Preflight, however, not 100%. There are many items which cannot be handled in traditional preflight. For instance, extending the artwork to bleed lines, to trash unused color swatches, making sure your fonts are all linked. Make sure all your fonts are active and collectable that can be packaged. These are all items which you’ll need to do manually, one way or another, or be sure that you have done them. So, it is good to manually double-check everything. Just like for an airplane, you would do a so-called “preflight” check, which is Step 2.
As you’ll see, one of the recommended tools is Markzware’s FlightCheck, which is a standalone tool, which will quickly and easily preflight your entire layout, whether Adobe Illustrator, even Adobe Photoshop .psd files, and of course, InDesign, QuarkXPress and other major DTP or desktop publishing file formats. As they mention, the typical errors and how to fix them are: linked graphics, or images that are RGB. Depending on your RIP, you may need to have your images in CMYK only… missing fonts, or in the PDF world, non-embedded fonts.
And, last but not least, the final step is packaging your file. It’s not the final step, it’s the second to last step: collecting or packaging all your fonts and images into one file. Markzware’s FlightCheck offers that, as well. It will allow you to collect all needed elements into one folder, even compressing it, so you can pass it on to the prepress department. That makes how to prepress layout very easy.
Last, but not least, is creating a PDF preview, if you’re going to send the native file to the printer or prepress department, as well. If the layout is going to be needed as a PDF, a print PDF, the final step will then be to create that print PDF. How to get your layout ready for prepress? One of the most important processes in the entire process is preflighting. Preflighting tools, which can, not only preflight, but also package your jobs, and even the manual part at the beginning can be largely handled by an electronic preflight tool, like Markzware’s FlightCheck.
As we saw in the beginning, in this chart about preflighting, it’s very important to understand this principle: to catch and find and fix a small problem which seems small in design. For instance, a font which is missing or an image which is RGB or low resolution…
To find such a problem at the design stage, may only cost 10 pounds, or 8 Euros, or 7 dollars, or something in that range, and cost only a few minutes to fix it, for the designer; but if the designer passes that problem down to the layout artist, and the layout artist passes it down to prepress, and prepress passes that down into the plate, and into the final press, to the final printing piece, or to the final outputted piece, you could be talking about going from 10 pounds, or 8 Euros, or 7 dollars wasted to thousands of pounds, Euros or dollars wasted.
That’s the all important process of preflight in prepress. If you’d like to try FlightCheck for yourself, cruise over to markzware.com, and check it out today. There’s a free demo version, a 30-day, full-working free version for you to use, preflight and package files with Markzware’s FlightCheck. Thank you very much. This is David Dilling from Markzware, signing off.
Markzware, the developer of FlightCheck, invites you to join us on MarkzwareTV, to watch videos, and to share prepress and printing topics with other printers! You can also mention your favorite videos and get feedback from fellow professionals in graphic communications. In between video viewing, check out FlightCheck at the online FlightCheck page to ensure quality print output.
Watch FlightCheck Videos in the Markzware FlightCheck video playlist on MarkzwareTV!
