pitstop preflight

[grayghost]

is there an accurate preflight setting i could use and trust!?.

 

[DavidMa]

In Pitstop you can take the canned ones and add or take away settings so you can make it your own.
That's what I did.

Have you tried the built in profiles? What part do you not trust?

 

[grayghost]

Hello DavidMa,
No I haven't tried to build a profile, i wouldn't know where to start!, I just want setting that are concise and easy to use...i am employed by a printing company that does both flexo and Litho...i deal with many designers some great at setting up their jobs for print and others well i just cant figure out why they do things the way they do sometimes i have to take the whole job apart to find the answer. InDesign, Quark, Illustrator & Photoshop your standard work flow with a Xante Rip.

 

[mattbeals]

You can trust the technical preflights of Acrobat Pro, Enfocus PitStop, callas pdfToolbox or Markzware FlightCheck. But you have to configure them to give you the information that you are looking for. And the "technical preflight" of the PDF is not the final word. You have to look at the PDF itself and ensure that the artwork is setup "correctly" for whatever process(es) you have.

It usually takes about an hour to go through PitStop's preflight profile parameters in depth and build a profile. Let me know if you want to setup some time.

 

[michaelejahn]

Save as PDF/X-4 might be a good place to start

Save as PDF/X-4 might be a good place to start

Hello DavidMa,
No I haven't tried to build a profile, i wouldn't know where to start!, I just want setting that are concise and easy to use...i am employed by a printing company that does both flexo and Litho...i deal with many designers some great at setting up their jobs for print and others well i just cant figure out why they do things the way they do sometimes i have to take the whole job apart to find the answer. InDesign, Quark, Illustrator & Photoshop your standard work flow with a Xante Rip.

Have them save as PDF/X-4 - that is a good start. Be sure your RIP can process PDF/X-4 files - do not assume that you are right and they are wrong.

Here is a You Tube I created that might help you get your head around the settings ( for InDesign anyway )

Compose Color Blog: How to create PDF/X4 files from InDesign

 

[grayghost]

many Thanks

many Thanks

Good Morning Mr. Beals, Mr. Jahn,
I would like to Thank You both for a generous response to my quandary...
i am fortunate to have found Print Planet and the community of experts that it houses,
i'll take the directions you have given me and see if i can find my own path.
As soon as i develop a profile that works for my workflow....then we can sit down and dissect its contents as to its functionality!... See you soon and Thanks again.

 

[mattbeals]

Great! Let me know of I can help.

 

[michaelejahn]

One shoe size does not really fit all...

One shoe size does not really fit all...

Good Morning Mr. Beals, Mr. Jahn,
I would like to Thank You both for a generous response to my quandary...
i am fortunate to have found Print Planet and the community of experts that it houses,
i'll take the directions you have given me and see if i can find my own path.
As soon as i develop a profile that works for my workflow....then we can sit down and dissect its contents as to its functionality!... See you soon and Thanks again.

Just FWI - I was just logged into a customer workflow system ( we are a software developer, and many of our customers use Compose EWF ( Express WorkFlow) - and I counted no less than 32 diferent preflight profiles.

I made this comment as you seemed to indicate that your 'goal' is one single preflight profile - not sure that should be your goal.

Wish you the best !

 

[mattbeals]

As Michael said frequently print providers will have more than one preflight profile. You can create a basic preflight profile for checking the basics like fonts and color spaces, maybe resolution, for when a job is submitted. Then once it is in production and you know which process will be used you can preflight for a specific condition with a preflight profile that is tailored to that condition.

Many times there will be a preflight profile that customer service uses out of Acrobat Pro like PDF/X-1a or PDF/X-4 to use as a general preflight when receiving the art. Then later in the workflow, like once in prepress, they will pick a profile like "Indigo 5000 12x18" or "heatset web" or whatever. Everyone does it "differently" but the same.