As many have seen, I have been on this Twitter rush lately. Seriously, it is such a cool communications tool. (See last post) And in reference to my last blog post, around that same Twitter thread, we got this awesome “Tweetimonial” or testimonial on FlightCheck Professional from one of the power users on Twitter and a graphic designer, whom loves Helvetica btw, @imjustcreative. Check it out:

Graphic design and power Twitter user @imjustcreative had this to say about FlightCheck

You can follow Markzware, imjustcreative mistygirlph (she Re-tweeted it as well, as you can see above) and many more on Twitter for free. Just sign-up. It is a great resource and you can learn a lot.

@tommytrc Re-Tweets this awesome comment further along it's path of communication...

OK, gotta get back to some marketing campaigns. Have a great one.

Gotta love Twitter. Caught a RT (Re-Tweet) on Twitter just moments ago where someone was asking if this resource and link here from Adobe (script) was preflight. Well, no, it appears not- just a collect of package script, which could be very useful. Here is how it looked in Twitter:

@colorburned RT's @r27 about preflight wishes in Illustrator

@Markzware informs via 2x RT about FlightCheck for Illustrator

Markzware’s FlightCheck Professional or Designer can also package up the job with all linked images and used fonts AND provide a full preflight of the Illustrator file. Not to mention, it can also check 50+ other file formats. OK, just thought I’d share that. Have a great one- finally feeling like spring around here !

One last pict and once again the cool thing about Twitter, when you actively Tweet. @r27 shared our answer with his “followers” – Cool:

There was, indeed, an interesting post by Adobe titled, “Three interesting Adobe InDesign links.” Here is what it said, with my comments (Or can you call that tongue-and-cheek?) intertwined:

“1. Scripting InDesign CS4 Preflight.

Yup that’s right, you can script almost anything in Adobe InDesign, and that includes the new Live Preflight feature. So if you think that the 200% productivity gain is still not enough, get your scripting gloves on, and automate it even more. This post demonstrates how to interact with the preflight system using JavaScript. [Via Heath Lynn, InDesign SDK Blog].”

OK, fair enough. Yet Markzware, a long-standing Adobe partner and the inventors, U.S. Patent holders and leaders in preflighting, have FlightCheck(r). This, the first, stand-alone preflighting app, and since 1995 checks ALL major Adobe file formats, such as Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop and PDF. Not to mention numerous other graphic communication for designing layouts formats such as QuarkXPress, Microsoft Publisher and many more…

“2. New Quark to Adobe InDesign CS4 Conversion Guide.  Read more... (344 words, 7 images, estimated 1:23 mins reading time)

XChange International in the UK is making an incredible offer – Buy QuarkXPress to Adobe InDesign (Q2ID) or InDesign to QuarkXPress (ID2Q), which each cost 171 Pounds (199 Euros) respectively and get FlightCheck Professional an NO EXTRA CHARGE! FlightCheck normally costs 474 Pounds (499 Euros) – act today. Full offer from XChange International below:

Markzware, the creators of preflight technology, are pleased to work with XChange UK to promote an amazing offer. For a limited time only, purchase either the Q2ID (Quark to InDesign) or ID2Q (InDesign to Quark) conversion tool and receive FlightCheck Professional 6 free of charge.  Read more... (389 words, 14 images, estimated 1:33 mins reading time) Save £494.00 while stocks last! Q2ID (QuarkXPress to Adobe® InDesign) is a plug-in for converting documents from QuarkXPress® to InDesign® format. Q2ID now includes CS3 and CS4 compatibility. The plug-in is designed for use by service bureaus, translation services, data conversion specialists, and other users migrating to the Adobe InDesign platform. The product can convert Quark documents created with either the Microsoft® Windows® or Apple® Macintosh versions of QuarkXPress into Adobe InDesign for Macintosh format. The repurposed legacy content from Quark files preserves the content, pages, layers, look and feel of the original document. More…

Here is a great Preflight Check list and reasons WHY one should use dedicated preflight tools, such as Markzware’s FlightCheck Professional. David Williams from Silver Peak in Canada explains within his blog post titled, “preflight: quality check your files” in part:

Quick Quality Checklist by a dedicated Preflight Manager
3. Run a preflight software like FlightCheck
Goal: For me, FlightCheck is the fastest way to get a snap-shop of the project as a whole allowing you to flag potential problems immediately.
Once files are downloaded and you have made some notes from the printouts for follow up, load the fonts and run the files through Flightcheck.
It will flag:
a) RGB Images which should be CMYK
b) low resolution images
c) missing fonts
d) Pantone colours in use
e) missing images

4. Now look at the files
Goal: You have flagged issues from the printouts and flightcheck. Now it’s time to open and have a look at the files themselves.
a) are they built to the correct size?
b) what file format are they (Illustrator, Quark, InDesign, PDF) and is this appropriate to the job?
c) are they the right scale?
d) is there enough bleed and are all graphics within the safety area?
e) are folds, die-lines and glue flaps created properly?
f) check Ink densities (see my Ink Density post)  Read more... (293 words, 7 images, estimated 1:10 mins reading time)

Got this interesting email in today about file integrity from IDG Connect Europe, which read:

“Europol seized more than 1.35 million worth of counterfeit euros in a crackdown this week. Millions more have already flowed into countries undetected. How do Europol detectives figure out when a note is counterfeit? They compare it to the real thing. That’s the idea behind File Integrity Monitoring. It examines your files for improper changes by comparing them to a known good state, or baseline configuration. Any discrepancy and you crack down, preventing fraud before it occurs.

For a detailed overview of how a File Integrity Monitoring solution allows your organization to detect and remediate improper changes as they appear, download the complimentary whitepaper “File Integrity Monitoring: Secure Your Virtual and Physical IT Environments.” It’s available right now courtesy of Tripwire via IDG Connect Europe.”
SOURCE: http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/idgce1/46/50298694/

This is actually one of the many things FlightCheck Professional can be used for besides the standard preflight powers it offers. Comparing two Quark or Adobe InDesign documents has long been needed and Markzware provides that through FlightCheck. Check out this little video we did on this:

Comparing two documents with FlightCheck Professional  Read more... (216 words, 7 images, estimated 52 secs reading time)

Zevrix Solutions has announced a new version of their InFlight tool, InPreflight. It is now on v2.6.6 and we learn:

“InPreflight also includes a powerful packaging automation engine which allows users to preflight and package multiple documents. Among other abilities, it can collect all files into one folder, eliminating the need to collect the same links multiple times for each design. This is especially useful when collecting multiple InDesign files that share the same linked images. The savings can result in gigabytes of saved space and hours of production time.

The new maintenance update provides the ability to check for embedded fonts in all EPS files. The information on embedded fonts is crucial to avoid false warnings about missing fonts when sending files to service providers. InPreflight is available for Mac OS X 10.4.2 and higher, a Universal Binary, and works with Adobe InDesign CS-CS4.”
SOURCE: http://www.iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=3062

InFlight checking is a very important step in the workflow, just as preflight is with FlightCheck Professional before and after take-off.

Have a great day – David

Here we see a good resource for those just starting with in-flight preflighting checking within Adobe’s InDesign CS4 (Adobe InDesign tutorial videos):

Saving time with InDesign CS4’s new preflight panel.
Want to also see how FlightCheck Professional can be used to prefight 50+ file formats? Watch the Adobe InDesign CS tutorial video here:

We hope you enjoy checking out these InDesign tutorials, as well as the other videos that Markzware has available.

Joy Chu, graphic designer, Joy Chu Designs, works primarily with Markzware’s preflighting solution, FlightCheck and stopped by to share that with us at the PIASD show.

Claudia Previn, graphic artist and technical editor, Centre City Development Corp. discusses her long history with Markzware’s preflighting solution, FlightCheck.