InDesign Preflight

[SteveClarkNo1]

I'm taking somewhat of a poll. I have created a custom Adobe PDF
Preset for exporting out of InDesign. That also creates a .joboptions
file from Distiller, which can be exported to to a network location an
d them loaded in to another work station's Indesign Presets. I have
also built a custom Preflight Profile in Acrobat (.kpf) that can be
exported and imported in to Acrobat on other work stations. The
misunderstanding I am having with someone here is the supposition that
when loaded in to an individuals work station, the Preflight Profile
and Adobe PDF Preset (.joboptions) somehow talks to Indesign and shows
warnings of violations as the project is being designed. I think the
PDF has to be exported or attempted to be before there are any
notifications of potential issues or failures.

I guess this is new to CS4, which I haven't used yet since Revere was
still 3 when I left. Am I missing something?

 

[mattbeals]

I think the preflight function in InDesign CS4 will show errors as objects are placed or created. I know Markzware's FlightCheck Studio did that. You build a ground control in the plug-in and it would show errors as objects are imported or created.

 

[mattbeals]

The preflight is updated live when images are imported. When I created a frame and filled it with an RGB color the preflight was also updated to reflect that. So it works like FlightCheck Studio from Markzware, just without all the extra options that Markzware provides. I wonder who developed this first, Markzware or Adobe...

 

[Lukas Engqvist]

Yes the preflight is live, but is independant of the joboptions.
Best practice is to load the colour settings file and preflight file before opening the documents. I am still a little dissapointed as I would more like to know when incorrect or missing colour management is available rather than when using colour management. I do find some of the functions very handy, like the non proportional scaling and minimum resolution.
In some projects we find the preflight eats too much processor so we leav it off during the inital design, to take full advantage you need alot of computational overhead.

 

[Shawn]

Hi Steve

When making the PDF InDesign will warn you of certain issues like un-embeddable fonts, but id doesn't use the preflight engine to do this. The InDesign CS4 preflight is completely separate from the PDF .joboptions or Acrobat Preflight .kpf files that you have created.

To use the IND preflight you'll have to create new settings that check for your specific needs. Go into the preflight box and choose define profiles from the call-out menu. Then click on the plus and change the settings.

Once done you can click on preflight profile menu button at the bottom of the define profile window to export your setting as an Indesign Preflight Profile (.idpp). That profile file can be distributed and loaded into other machines by choosing import front he preflight profile menu.

Shawn

 

[SteveClarkNo1]

Anyone know there is some guide in LAYMEN'S terms that explain what all of these things mean in the Preflight Control Panel? As we know (from Adobe PDF Presets), the "out of the box" settings aren't always the best ones to use. I work at a place where someone used to tell people what buttons to push but never why. Now that I'm establishing settings to send to our "not so educated" design clients, it would be nice to not only know what some of these mean for my own use, but also for when I have to explain just what that error message means to them when it pops up. The help menus assume that I already know what "Overprinting Applied to White (or Paper Color)" means. This was just one example of the many items I don't understand. Sorry for being so ignorant, but we all had to start somewhere. I'm just a decade or so late.

 

[davidmwe]

I think the preflight function in InDesign CS4 will show errors as objects are placed or created. I know Markzware's FlightCheck Studio did that. You build a ground control in the plug-in and it would show errors as objects are imported or created.

Matt is correct, we used to make a plugin that did this. We have since stopped that, for quite frankly, Live Preflighting is the ticket (or closest you'll get) to inflight, in-document control.

It should also be mentioned the virtues of FlightCheck Professional, which can be loaded on each machine, but share the same preflight settings (indeed, Ground Controls) and works on your desktop. It will check not only your InDesign layout, but also your art work files and the resulting PDF (50+ file formats in all.) - all through the same, easy-to-use, standard interface. Sort of like a tennis coach; it is not always best to preflight during the match, if you know what I mean... Here was a detailed explanation we gave on FlightCheck and InDesign's Live Preflighting:
Adobe InDesign CS has Live Preflighting; do I still need FlightCheck?

Lastly, here was an interesting take on preflighting:
“The question is: why use Adobe’s Live Preflight, Markzware’s FlightCheck Professional and Enfocus’ PitStop together? The answer is simple: for complete quality control.” Source: Print & Paper Monthly (U.K. - March 2009, page 17-18) -
Adobe InDesign Live Preflight and FlightCheck

 

[mattbeals]

Let's not forget about Callas pdfToolbox (which is the underlying preflight engine in Adobe Acrobat for their preflighting) for advance preflight and correction.

 

[Shawn]

Anyone know there is some guide in LAYMEN'S terms that explain what all of these things mean in the Preflight Control Panel?

Hi Steve

Adobe has a video tutorial up at their website
Adobe - InDesign CS4 video tutorial : Using Live Preflight

For some general info you could also try the Ghent Workgroup (GWG). They have free PDF creation guidelines, Acrobat preflight settings, test PDFs, and joboptions.
Ghent PDF Workgroup | Online Education | Downloadable Education
Ghent PDF Workgroup | Download Application Settings | Application Settings

Finally, VIGC (the Flemish Innovation Center for Graphic Communication) has some free downloadable Preflight profiles for InDesign CS4 based on GWG standards. The easiest way to proceed might be to download their settings and modify them for your needs.
Standard Preflight Profiles

Good Luck
Shawn

 

[mattbeals]

Too bad FlightCheck Studio isn't available for CS4. If you're going to do a live preflight you might as well do a thorough job like FlightCheck Pro and Studio.

Hopefully Markzware gets the credit they deserve for "live preflighting".

 

[SteveClarkNo1]

Acrobat Preflight

Acrobat Preflight

Thanks for all of the thoughts. I dug deeper and found it. Yes, the Indy live preflight is a bit understated. The biggest issue I see was on a file I received. To keep this simple and our terms, for what it said was wrong and the way it said it, the designer wouldn't have understood what it meant.

I'm recommending the designers use my Acrobat Preflight profile rather than the .idpp. That one rocks! It even explained what all of those things I wanted to know about meant as I added or removed custom warnings and fixes.

 

[mattbeals]

If you are going to give them your preflight profile for Acrobat then you should seriously consider one of the PDF/X flavors. Check out http://printplanet.com/forums/prepress-workflow-discussion/19726-acrobat-output-preview for some thoughts on why this might be a good idea.

 

[SteveClarkNo1]

Thanks Matt. I went with PDF/X-3:2002

 

[mattbeals]

why not X-4 so you can preserve transparency?

 

[SteveClarkNo1]

You are a funny man, Matt. Not everyone has an APPE workflow. Dear Santa,...

 

[mattbeals]

You don't need APPE for PDF/X-4. Sure it helps, but you don't need it. Keep the transparency so you can handle the flattening correctly.

 

[SteveClarkNo1]

I'm trying an X-4 as we speak. The X-3 showed up with those "flattening lines" that go away when you uncheck "Smooth Line Art" and "Smooth Images" in the page display but they are showing up in the Rip preview. I'm throwing the pages on a plate to see what happens.