Preflight: Will Your File Fly
There’s a lot of prep work to be done before you can get your print job off the ground.
July 2006 by Jean-Marie Hershey
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In the beginning was computer-to-plate, which begat digital files, which begat much confusion among graphic designers, printers, and prepress service bureaus because customer files were full of errors and omissions. And there was much weeping and gnashing of teeth until lo and behold, the miracle of preflighting came to pass. And there was great rejoicing because, henceforth, all digital files would be automatically checked and corrected before proceeding to the next step in the workflow, saving many costly remakes and much labor. Hallelujah.
There’s no denying that preflight software has been a godsend for printers and prepress professionals everywhere since the concept was introduced and popularized more than a decade ago. Preflighting is the process by which prepress identifies and corrects missing items and errors in customer files before they become bigger and more costly problems further downstream in the printing process. As the very first stage in a prepress workflow, preflighting generally is performed on the desktop file or on the file right out of the design application to make sure the file will RIP the way it needs to, i.e., will produce a correctly printed job.
Search and destroy
Following a series of automated and manual steps, basic preflighting software checks the un-RIPped digital file for soundness, based on preset or user-defined parameters. Many also offer automatic “correction” of common file problems. (We’ll have more to say about that.) In short, preflighting is the very first stage and linchpin of the prepress workflow that renders the whole process more efficient and productive.
There’s nothing mysterious about why the commercial and package printing industries have spent a great deal of time and money developing automated processes to reduce or eliminate as many process-related errors as possible. According to Doug Rosen, director of education and development for preflight pioneer Markzware, “From the standpoint of ROI [return on investment], (preflighting) makes sense because the earlier you find a problem the less costly it is to repair - even at the final stage when the PDF comes in before printing.”
RIP me, fix me
While preflighting is closely related to both RIPping and file repair, it is synonymous with neither. For example, while RIPping can also highlight problems, it is far better and much less expensive to catch them before a job has been RIPped and output.
There’s no denying that preflight software has been a godsend for printers and prepress professionals everywhere since the concept was introduced and popularized more than a decade ago. Preflighting is the process by which prepress identifies and corrects missing items and errors in customer files before they become bigger and more costly problems further downstream in the printing process. As the very first stage in a prepress workflow, preflighting generally is performed on the desktop file or on the file right out of the design application to make sure the file will RIP the way it needs to, i.e., will produce a correctly printed job.
Search and destroy
Following a series of automated and manual steps, basic preflighting software checks the un-RIPped digital file for soundness, based on preset or user-defined parameters. Many also offer automatic “correction” of common file problems. (We’ll have more to say about that.) In short, preflighting is the very first stage and linchpin of the prepress workflow that renders the whole process more efficient and productive.
There’s nothing mysterious about why the commercial and package printing industries have spent a great deal of time and money developing automated processes to reduce or eliminate as many process-related errors as possible. According to Doug Rosen, director of education and development for preflight pioneer Markzware, “From the standpoint of ROI [return on investment], (preflighting) makes sense because the earlier you find a problem the less costly it is to repair - even at the final stage when the PDF comes in before printing.”
RIP me, fix me
While preflighting is closely related to both RIPping and file repair, it is synonymous with neither. For example, while RIPping can also highlight problems, it is far better and much less expensive to catch them before a job has been RIPped and output.
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