Paper Tips

Preflight Now or Crash n’ Burn Later

By Joseph Marin

Just as a pilot performs a number of system checks on the airplane before takeoff, it’s important to make sure that a print project doesn’t contain any serious errors that will prevent it from printing successfully.

Preflighting for print production is about examining all of the components that make up an eventual printed piece and comparing them against a checklist of potential known issues. If they “pass” the check, the job can move forward in the print production workflow. If they “fail,” something has to be done to correct the problem before proceeding. It is by default a methodical task that is typically performed by prepress personnel (no one wants to reprint a job because an error wasn’t found in time), but designers should also preflight their work before they send it off to their printers.

Software tools and a checklist are both critical to the preflighting process. Some of the things that a typical preflight checklist helps you examine:

• Layout issues: Does the physical size of the layout match the specifications? Are all page elements there? Was the job created with a professional desktop publishing application? Are bleed elements there? Do graphic elements abut (will there be white gaps between objects)? Are any of the rules set to a thickness of “hairline,” or are they made up of a screen build? More »