Read over on PrintWeek an interesting development in the area of “preflighting,” which will be shown in May at IPEX 2010 in the UK. Interesting, for we have been saying for years just demanding a PDF file in a certain flavor does not work:

Enfocus unveils PitStop Connect pre-flighting tool

Barney Cox, printweek.com, 09 March 2010
Enfocus has launched PitStop Connect – a software tool that printers can supply to clients to ensure files are produced to their specification so that there are “no more headaches” for creatives.
Source: http://www.printweek.com/PreMediaWeekly

The reason it is even more interesting, is for the fact that preflighting does not start with checking a PDF!  No, it starts with checking native artwork and Quark, InDesign or Illustrator layouts. That is what FlightCheck Professional and it’s exportable Ground Controls or preflight profiles offer. The ability to share what to check for, BEFORE a PDF is created. The fact that just jamming a PDF spec down the throats of the designers has not worked, as you’ll read in the article, also does not surprise me, for we have been seeing and saying that all along! We read in part:  Read more... (500 words, 4 images, estimated 2:00 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)

“duke prepress” asks over on the PrintPlanet forum, “Does anyone still preflight jobs if so what programs are you using“? Here are some of the answers:

“mattbeals” chimed in saying, in part: “Yes, there is still a lot of preflighting going on. Two basic methods; native document preflight and PDF based preflighting. For native files the only really functional, and meaningful, preflight comes from FlightCheck…. There are others, but Markzware, Callas and Enfocus are the three real major players if you look at the installation base. Preflight is like an onion, it’s got layers…”

“P-Rex” (Love that user name!) added: “Acrobat has its own Preflight feature built in. Otherwise, PitStop or FlightCheck are good third-party software programs.“

To see all of the comments or to add your own, you can read the full post here:
http://printplanet.com/forums/prepress-workflow-discussion/17908-preflight