70% of PDFs and files for print have Job-Stopping errors Costing millions in reproduction.

“Quality is everyone’s responsibility”

W. Edwards Deming

Would an airplane pilot ever take-off without performing a preflight check? The answer is “no.” Then why would you drop your PDFs into your publishing workflow without performing a thorough preflight? Thousands of Markzware customers rely on FlightCheck every day to check their PDF or source print-files, such as Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop or QuarkXPress before they output (print or create PDF)/send off. Whether it is an open file type or a PDF, FlightCheck Professional will not only check for the Top Ten preflight problems but will scan your documents for literally hundreds of potential and costly output problems, even solving the issues for you. Best of all, encourage the use of FlightCheck throughout your extended workflow, as a PDF is only as good as the native or source files it is created from!

Whether it is hairlines or RGB colors, image compression or ink density of your PDF, FlightCheck will let you know. Stop the “Top-Ten Preflight Problems” today and start saving more!

Enfocus PitStop or Markzware FlightCheck?
Not sure. See: PitStop or FlightCheck…  Read more... (275 words, 8 images, estimated 1:06 mins reading time)

This was a very nice image that our Swiss distributor, Kursiv, designed for their FlightCheck Professional v6.5 Swiss German mailing. Check it out; and for those from Switzerland, you may want to see the text below, for there are some great offers on stand-alone preflighting for multiple desktop publishing file formats via FlightCheck:

Preflighting für (fast) alles

Sicherheit in der Produktion – das erreichen Sie durch standardisierte Arbeitsabläufe. Eingehende oder ausgehende Dokumente können auf Fehler untersucht werden. FlightCheck Pro prüft alle wichtigen Dokumentformate aus der Druckvorstufe – sogar ohne dass Sie über die Originalprogramme verfügen müssen.

FlightCheck Pro 6.5
FlightCheck Professional 6.5 ist die neueste Version von Markzware’s Preflighting Tool, welches sowohl offene Dokumentformate (XPress 3–8, InDesign bis CS4, Word, Illustrator, usw.) als auch Ausgabeformate wie EPS, PDF und PDF-X prüft.

FlightCheck Professional läuft als eigenständiges Programm, und Dokumente werden durch einfaches Drag-and-Drop auf das Programm-Icon geprüft. Dafür müssen die Originalprogramme nicht installiert sein. Flightcheck Pro generiert sofort einen vollständigen Report gemäss Ihren Einstellungen. Perfekt für Ihre AVOR.
FlightCheck Pro unterstützt auch eine Batchverarbeitung mehrerer Dateien, und lässt sich durch Presets einfach für verschiedene Aufgaben konfigurieren.  Read more... (273 words, 8 images, estimated 1:06 mins reading time)

Visit Markzware at PRINT 09 and See:

NEW FLIGHTCHECK® Professional v6.5

and

PageZephyr™

The new & unique search, content extraction and re-publishing tool

Get the full story and discount details here:

NIEUWE PREFLIGHT SOFTWARE – Biedt (Digitale) Drukkers, Uitgeverijen en Grafisch Ontwerpers een volledige kwaliteitscontrole

Markzware’s FlightCheck® Professional ondersteunt nu QuarkXPress 8 & Adobe CS4 Suite

RIJSWIJK, Nederland, 28 Augustus 2009 – Markzware (www.markzware.com), de authoriteit en uitvinder van preflight heeft een belangrijke uitgrade uitgebracht van haar populaire preflight oplossing, FlightCheck Professional 6.5 voor Macintosh. Met de huidige economische uitdagingen, biedt Markzware een korting van 100 Euro op FlightCheck Professional v6.5 welke volledige support biedt voor Adobe CS4 Creative Suite en QuarkXPress 8. Deze krachtige upgrade geeft drukkerijen, grafisch ontwerpers en uitgeverijen de mogelijkheid efficiënt te controleren en zo kostbare productiefouten te voorkomen.

Het proces van preflighting is wereldwijd al langer dan een decennium een zeer belangrijke halte voor drukkerijen en prepress professionals. Preflighting is het proces waarbij missende items en fouten in de bestanden van klanten worden gevonden en gecorrigeerd, nog vóór ze een probleem vormen in de workflow.

“Ik zweer bij mijn Markzware FlightCheck Pro” zegt Martin Harding, prepress Mac gebruiker bij Prometheus Press in de UK. Harding vervolgt: “Ik vind het zo’n goed programma omdat het snel RGB kleurruimte, trapping en over-printing problemen detecteert en zelfs problemen tackelt die kunnen worden veroorzaakt door inktdensiteit. Ik werk met een high-end systeem met ingebouwde bestandscontrole, maar ben nog steeds van mening dat het belangrijk is een systeem als FlightCheck Pro te hebben om problemen nog eerder te detecteren.”  Read more... (835 words, 7 images, estimated 3:20 mins reading time)

Free data conversion services look good on the shiny web-page surface, but I recommend you try these out before jumping up and down. For instance, check this out. Some of my colleagues forwarded me this and asked me to post our findings. They tried http://www.pdftoword.com/ and both got back a message similar to this:

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
From: “PDF to Word” <no-reply@mail.pdftoword.com>
Subject: [PDF to Word] Failed to convert Xxxxxxxxxxxx.pdf
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Now, this could be just a fluke, but the point is you don’t get nothing for free. As the Dutch often say about making purchases (loosely translated), “A cheap purchase is a bad purchase.” (Well, anyway, rhymes in Dutch, really!)

And on that investment note, this one was rather interesting:
http://forums.adobe.com/message/2162894  Read more... (363 words, 7 images, estimated 1:27 mins reading time)

Take advantage of Markzware Summer Special and save $200. You can choose of one our award winning conversion solutions for a FREE  Q2ID, PUB2ID and ID2Q. with the purchase of FlightCheck Professional.

Here are some testimonials on how these document conversions tools have helped to save the day:  Read more... (357 words, 7 images, estimated 1:26 mins reading time)

This year’s IPA Technical Conference takes place June 8-10, 2009 in Rosemont, Illinois, and Markzware (originators of FlightCheck )will be exhibiting there at the Intercontinental O’Hare Hotel. I hope you’ll stop by booth #18 to see us!

In its 44th year, the IPA Technical Conference is the premedia industry’s premier event for showcasing the latest advances in graphic technology and workflow innovations.

In addition to in-depth conference sessions, hands-on computer lab and supplier EXPO, the IPA Proofing RoundUP, JDF RoundUP, JDF Test-Drive and Digital Print Forum will offer exhaustive testing and comparative studies to shed light on many of our industry’s newest technologies and process innovations for printers digital and non-digital.

You can use special purchase code: TC09MARKZWARE to save $200 off the registration. Find more info and register online at http://www.ipa.org/tech.

See you at the 2009 IPA Technical Conference!

SANTA ANA, California, April 22, 2009 — Markzware (www.markzware.com), the leading developer of preflighting, data extraction and data conversion software has donated upgrades of its preflighting and conversion solutions to Rochester Institute of Technology’s School of Print Media.

“This donation will help the students continue to develop and learn the importance of preflighting skills with FlightCheck . Access to the latest in preflighting technology, FlightCheck not only helps students to better understand the process, but it helps new graduates arrive on the doorsteps of future employers having mastered key software applications, and entering the workforce as highly productive employees,” said Mary Gay Marchese, director of public relations Markzware.  FlightCheck can be used to check several types of documents to be printed from a layout software program, brochure software, layout software, design software, digital graphic software, and various other kinds of software.

“We are very pleased to continue our long-standing relationship with Markzware,” says Erich Lehman, premedia facilities coordinator, RIT’s School of Print Media. “Their support for our students and programs has helped us to enhance academic exposure to the issues that arise during preflight in a practical manner using industry standard tools. Markzware also enables us to troubleshoot the latest problematic files. Their Q2ID and ID2Q conversion tools have saved many student projects in a pinch.”  Read more... (220 words, 7 images, estimated 53 secs reading time)