Close to fifteen years on the same question arises, time and time again, with regards to print quality control in the design to print process:
Where is the best place to preflight
the art-work or print layout?
Preflight to stop printing problems in a desktop publishing (DTP) document or in an element, at the design stage. It may only set you back $10€; that same problem on the press will cost you potentially $thousands€. This chart answers that age-old question pretty clearly and shows how simple preflight controls can greatly improve your ROI. Preflighting is not a process just ‘done by someone else’. In the manufacturing of your designs, you want to take flight in the form or a printed piece. It should be done throughout the print workflow, time and time again.
Naturally each workflow varies, often greatly, but as a rule of thumb, you should preflight color, images, fonts, etc. Preflight tools like FlightCheck can help when you are about to:
A) Send off to another party to work further on the layout or design
B) Before using received artwork from other sources
C) Whenever something is unsure or elements “act-up” in the layout
D) (before) Output or Export to PDF or Print
E) Postflight the resulting/received print PDF file
There are those that like an active preflight during the manufacturing process itself of the graphic design for color brochures, business cards, etc, but most will admit to that not working well in the overall creative process.
Markzware FlightCheck is the preflight tool of choice for thousands of graphic designers, layout artist, prepress operators and print professionals alike. FlightCheck allows you to preflight in A thru E highlighted above to get perfect printing quality the first time. It’s that simple. FlightCheck handles 50+ file formats, allowing you to both preflight (InDesign, Illustrator, QuarkXPress, etc) and postflight (PDF, EPS, Postscript, etc) your workflow to a standard that even Deming would approve:
“Quality is everyone’s responsibility” – W. Edwards Deming
