We don't preflight check

[j4yt33]

It appears we are the only print company that does not have a preflight check process.

Are we missing something? We tend to check our artwork when working on it within Illustrator. A preflight check seems like an added process that is not needed.

We use Automation Engine workflows to proof and send to press.

We have PitStop but don't use it at all for checking artwork.

This is the only print company I have worked for, therefore I don't know any different.

Please can someone sell me the idea of preflight checking and list some of the things you check within your profile/action list? We produce small labels both conventionally and digitally.

Many thanks

 

[kansasquaker]

I would guess that automation engine is doing some preflighting for you. I don't know AE that well, but I know it can automatically apply pitstop preflights and fixups. For example, does it check image resolution, lossy compression, separations, color space, pdf version, bleeds etc?

The basic point of a preflight is to ensure that the file will make it through the rip and give you the desired results after it goes through. If you're not having file related issues on press, you must be taking care of it - either manually or in automation engine. A preflight check in pitstop does the same things you can do manually, but it's significantly faster and more thorough.

 

[Stephen Marsh]

It appears we are the only print company that does not have a preflight check process.

Are we missing something? We tend to check our artwork when working on it within Illustrator. A preflight check seems like an added process that is not needed.

You tell us, do any of your operators miss anything, make mistakes, have a bad day etc?

As kansasquaker notes, software preflight is fast. Keep doing things manually, however why skip the automated preflight to potentially catch things that might be missed?

Keep in mind that preflight profiles may need to be customised for your particular work. If you are not automatically applying fixes, then it can’t hurt. Also keep in mind that packaging is different to general/commercial print, so the human element is still very critical, however this does not invalidate the automated software component.


Stephen Marsh

 

[kansasquaker]

why skip the automated preflight to potentially catch things that might be missed?

Stephen, I agree with everything you said, but my point was really that his files might be preflighted without his knowledge. For instance, I'd bet my lead operator would say she doesn't preflight files. From her point of view, it's part of the ripping process, so it isn't really preflighting anymore.

I looked at AE once and was actually really impressed. The way you can apply pitstop actions automatically and the complex routing rules you can write was really impressive. We didn't buy it but mainly because we've always seen them as a packaging company. It's hard to make the leap with something as important as job prep . . .

 

[Stephen Marsh]

Stephen, I agree with everything you said, but my point was really that his files might be preflighted without his knowledge. For instance, I'd bet my lead operator would say she doesn't preflight files. From her point of view, it's part of the ripping process, so it isn't really preflighting anymore.

I looked at AE once and was actually really impressed. The way you can apply pitstop actions automatically and the complex routing rules you can write was really impressive. We didn't buy it but mainly because we've always seen them as a packaging company. It's hard to make the leap with something as important as job prep . . .

Understood, kansas – until the OP can look into their AE settings we don’t know if any upstream fixes or preflighting/routing is taking place or not.


Stephen Marsh

 

[j4yt33]

We have complex AE Workflows in place but none of which checks and fixes artwork.

Because we open every artwork within Illustrator to, at the minimum, apply Cut paths and trim and media boxes, we check everything at that stage manually.

I feel like we are missing a trick, although because every job is so different from one another, I can't think of what would be involved in a generic pre flight check.

Is there also not the worry that the operators will start to get lazy as they would assume the preflight check would check everything?

 

[Jose Gonzales]

I prefer to have some steps automatically checked. Basic things like font issues / image resolution / trim box etc... Just because we can check them as soon as artwork is delivered. Anybody receiving customer PDF files can send those files in to the preflight workflow. We've setup an email account in AE as entry point to the preflight workflow. So we can report back quality issues rapidly to the customer.

 

[[email protected]]

Although Pre-flighting files is considered a standard part of any workflow, the real question is what are you trying to accomplish when you send a file through any pre-flight workflow? A Pre-flight workflow can cover everything from rewriting the incoming PDF file to a certain standard, or it might just produce a report of potential issues that an operator may want to investigate. Without some form of pre-flighting, you are counting on tribal knowledge and experienced operators to inspect and process files. Without a doubt, over time, mistakes will get through. Pre-fighting files, at the minimum, creates a process and platform to add process improvement to Prepress, reduce mistakes, and should always continue to morph to trap for new issues as they are identified.

 

[Stephen Marsh]

Please can someone sell me the idea of preflight checking and list some of the things you check within your profile/action list? Many thanks

Take a look at some of the standard preflight setups in Acrobat Pro and Enfocus PitStop Pro, categories include: PDF document version, pages, images, colours, fonts and text, transparency, pdf/x compliance, layers etc.


Stephen Marsh

 

[Bill W]

Years ago when I ran a prepress department we created a list of items that we knew would be trouble on on Flexo presses and my preflight person would check the file for those items along with such things as missing fonts, low res images, etc. Any items that needed to be obtained from the customer before we could pass the file as being printable, were presented to the customer rep to get from the customer.

Recently I created an Acrobat preflight profile that finds some of those file "challenges". I have attached it in a zip file.

-Bill-

 

[j4yt33]

Hi Bill thanks for the attachment, although I am having trouble importing it.

Is it done through Acrobat Pro?

Sorry if this seems like a silly question.

 

[PDL]

As a FYI - Esko Automation Engine has PitStop built into it - (Enfocus is part of Esko) - so it’s possible to do PitStop Preflight and PitStop Actions as part of an automatic workflow to check for and, if asked to, correct common errors in PDF files. As in PitStop server or standalone versions for Acrobat you may configure both the Preflight and Actions to your liking. PitStop Actions are the bomb.
Nice thing about having this in a workflow is that subsequent to passing the Preflight, or getting warnings or errors, you can determine the next coarse of automatic action whether it be email notifications, file re-routing, or proceeding to the next step in print production.

 

[Bill W]

j4yt33 - Sorry for the late reply, I am kind of on vacation. The preflight profile was originally made in Acrobat Pro and then imported into Acrobat DC. I saved it from DC as I no longer have any previous versions of Acrobat on my computer. However I did find an older version of this profile that was made 2/18/15 which I believe was made using Acrobat Pro XI. I have attached the older version - I hope you can use it. View attachment MPI Check.kfp.zip