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... (270 words, 1 image, estimated 1:05 mins reading time)

FlightCheck Professional v6.5 is now shipping with Adobe CS4 InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat, etc and Quark 8 support. After an Adobe CS4 purchase, for example, computers can be licensed for various compatible softwares, like Markzware’s FlightCheck. So, if you buy Adobe CS4 Master Collection, you can use FlightCheck when you preflight.

A question about software licensing was asked, which I think is a good one to share;

Question: Can I use FlightCheck Pro v6.5 on two machines from myself? Such as on a desktop computer and on my MacBook Pro?

Answer: FlightCheck Professional v6.5 is licensed for a single computer. You may load the software on more than one computer, per the license agreement, but if you want to run it on another computer you must first de-activate your single user license on one computer and then activate that license on a second computer. If you need two run on two computers simultaneously then you will need to purchase a second license for FlightCheck. 5-pack and 10-packs of FlightCheck are available and contact your local Markzware reseller to get a reduced price for variable site licenses other than the 5 and 10-packs.  Read more... (239 words, estimated 57 secs reading time)

From the show floor of PRINT 09, we post you this interesting film-

Xerox DirectMail on the “Prepress for Digital Printing” Book and retro FlightCheck; a video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkj70fyy-CI

Transcript:
How many of you remember this one? Why fight it, preflight it! With FlightCheck. Now this is an old one, going a little bit retro here. I don’t know from when this was exactly, probably about 1999 and maybe even earlier, like 97, or 1996 But anyway that brings us to the next subject of today which is a little letter I got a nice direct mail piece, nice to see that. Not only was it a direct mail piece it was personalized and it came from no other than Xerox.

BREAKING- since this video was made, FlightCheck 6.5 with QuarkXPress 8 and CS4 or Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, Acrobat and thus PDF support is now shipping! Save one hundred when purchasing here!

When an InDesign.INDD file is really a Quark .QXP layout…….

Hi, David Dilling here from Markzware and here is yet another interesting one. A customer sent in a email with the dreaded “I have a bad InDesign file please help me!” This one was a little bit different in that he knew it was an old file and that there were defiantly issues with it and he couldn’t quiet figure it out. The subject of this movie is “When InDesign isn’t InDesign but QuarkXPress.” Yes follow me on this one. Come check it out on my screen here because it is quiet a common problem, in any event I’m hearing more and more about this and the type and creator being zapped in the file and other issues like this. It’s very important, the file extension use and how you use it on a Macintosh or even a Windows machine of course as well.

It is not as easy as just adding .INDD to a QuarkXPress file and woof magically it become a InDesign file. Visa versa you just can’t take a Jpeg add a .tiff and it becomes a tiff file, it just does not work that way. If it did life would be a lot simpler but that is just not so. Now come check it out on my screen and thank you for watching.

FTP, although as reported here, is almost as old as me, is still the preferred and main method of file transfer to the printer:

This was all in a very interesting and detailed production survey for publishers by FOLIO over at FolioMag.com, where we read:

FOLIO:’s 2009 Manufacturing and Production Trends Survey reports what tools—like ad portals, virtual proofing and XML workflows—continue to come into their own and save publishers valuable dollars, as well as those areas that manufacturing and production execs are avoiding. Facing so many challenges this year, it appears that decision makers are remaining status quo and investing only in upgrades that will save big in the long run.
Source: http://www.foliomag.com/2009/folio-s-2009-manufacturing-and-production-trends-survey

Let’s just check out a couple of the color graphics they had, but, much more when you click through and read the entire article…

So prepress is continuing it’s migrating in-house by publishers. No surprise there, as it helps streamline the preflight process (note: FlightCheck Pro v6.5 is shipping with Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, PDF CS4 support and Quark 8 checking – preflight and package with FlightCheck!) – And we see that XML and the conversion to a more readily readable file format is also on the move:  Read more... (202 words, 3 images, estimated 48 secs reading time)

ZUR SOFORTIGEN VERÖFFENTLICHUNG

Neue Preflight-Software zur lückenlosen Qualitätssicherung im Digitaldruck

Markzware FlightCheck® Professional jetzt mit Unterstützung für QuarkXPress 8 & Adobe Creative Suite 4

RIJSWIJK, Niederlande, 31. August 2009: Das Unternehmen Markzware, anerkannter Preflight-Experte und -Erfinder, veröffentlicht ein wichtiges Upgrade der beliebten Preflight-Software FlightCheck Professional für Macintosh. FlightCheck Professional 6.5 bietet vollständige Unterstützung für QuarkXPress 8 und Adobe Creative Suite 4 / CS4. Die leistungsstarke neue Version gestattet Druckereien, Grafikdesignern und Verlagen ein effizientes Preflight zur Vermeidung kostspieliger Produktionsfehler.

Die mittlerweile üblichen kleineren Auflagen und kürzeren Abwicklungszeiten erfordern eine bessere Qualitätskontrolle bei digitalen Druckdateien. Adobe PDF-, InDesign-, QuarkXPress- und andere Dateien enthalten mehrere Elementkategorien wie Schriftarten, Farben, Bilder, Dokumenteinstellungen usw., die alle potenzielle Fehlerquellen bei der Druckausgabe sind. FlightCheck ist deshalb so beliebt, weil es flexibel zur Überprüfung sämtlicher Dokumentelemente in Dateien verschiedenster Formate eingesetzt werden kann. Viele halten es für das beste Tool zur Qualitätskontrolle.

Angesichts der derzeitigen wirtschaftlichen Lage müssen Dokumente in Druckereien und Verlagen genau geprüft werden, um Neudrucke zu vermeiden und wettbewerbsfähig zu bleiben. Drucker, Verleger und Grafikdesigner können sich hier voll auf http://www.markzware.com/flightcheck_professional/ FlightCheck 6.5 verlassen und von seinen Funktionen profitieren.  Read more... (534 words, estimated 2:08 mins reading time)

Email Tuesdays. Here was a good question, which we often get for our Quark to InDesign Adobe Plugin, Q2ID:

On Aug 31, 2009, at 7:00 PM, Xxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxco.uk wrote:

=======================================================

Question::
Hello, I am currently considering buying Q2ID but I need to know if it will convert Multiple Language Quark Documents. I look forward to your reply.
Thanks James.

— — —         — — —         — — —

Hello James,

Yes indeed, Q2ID will convert multiple language files (good question though, we get asked that often.). We only have some issue with 2-byte character languages (Chinese, Arabic, etc), but even then, the layout converts fine. So yes, Q2ID will open any western language document and convert the entire design layout for you with one click! (As will Publisher to InDesign- PUB2ID and ID2Q or InDesign to Quark, the  other way around, btw.)
See:
http://www.markzware.com/q2id

Cc’ed is our partner in the UK whom can assist with your order or any other questions, XChnage International.

Friendly Regards,
David Dilling
Markzware Europe

— — —         — — —         — — —         — — —

FlightCheck v6.5 with CS4 and QuarkXPress 8 support – NOW SHIPPING!
http://www.markzware.com/flightcheck_professional  Read more... (268 words, estimated 1:04 mins reading time)

Color management is like colour management only spelled differently. That about sums up color for many in print media; it is the same color on that screen as on my printed brochure, only it looks different, cries the corporate customer, to the prepress operators dismay. In this tutorial video we get into the deep details on how FlightCheck Professional (Out any day now with CS4 and Quark 8 support) can help you in preflighting color …

… and for that matter preflighting colour (ok, enough jokes with words, but some do call it color preflighting) in a detailed fashion -

a full transcript is below: In this movie I would like to address some problems you might encounter when you work with InDesign layouts QuarkXPress, Adobe Illustrator (YES, FlightCheck does preflight Illustrator files and package all fonts and images too! Video: How to preflight Adobe Illustrator files…) or any other layout application in which you are able to use colors. Let’s dive in…

 Read more... (980 words, estimated 3:55 mins reading time)

Zevrix is known for their Adobe Plugin to preflight InDesign files called InPreflight, similar to the built-in function within the CS4 only version itself (Live Preflighting) which Adobe offers. We call that process more a midflight check, as opposed to a preflight on your native files or artwork. And certainly not a postflight on a PDF or processed document. So it was with interest that we read this about a new automated solution from this software developer for that postflight process:

PDF Checkpoint 1.0 Public Beta ******************************* Zevrix Solutions introduces PDF Checkpoint – a new quality control and automation solution for PDF files. PDF Checkpoint 1.0 is currently in Public Beta stage and offers the following features: - Quickly preflight multiple PDF files – Create preflight profiles to detect common problems – List all PDF fonts, color spaces, images and document properties – Preview  and list resolution of PDF images More features are planned to be added – and It’s your chance to request features required for your PDF workflow: - Routing of PDF files depending on preflight results – Split PDF – Extract PDF images PDF Checkpoint 1.0 Public Beta can be downloaded here: http://zevrix.com/download.php  Read more... (280 words, estimated 1:07 mins reading time)

Adobe InDesign files and preflighting; an AdobeTV video by Rufus Deuchler:

“In this sixth episode of CSInsider|Design, I show the new Live Preflight feature in Adobe InDesign CS4. The term Preflight originates from the pre-flight checklists used by pilots prior to take off. In a publishing workflow, preflight is the process of checking a document for integrity and completeness, before it can move on in the workflow.” Source: http://graphicstart.com/item.php?f&itemid=1071437

He references a Wikipedia article which mentions this about preflight (postflight):

Pre-flighting is a term used in the printing industry to describe the process of confirming that the digital files required for the printing process are all present, valid, correctly formatted, and of the desired type. The term originates from the pre-flight checklists used by pilots. The term was first used in a presentation at the Color Connections conference in 1990 by consultant Chuck Weger.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-flight

Speaking of Chuck, watch what he has to say about this moment when he coined the term preflighting, to relate it to the quality control process in prepress and publishing at a show called Color Connections (late 80’s/early 90’s). Filmed in 2008 at the GraphExpo show :

 Read more... (194 words, estimated 47 secs reading time)