Preflighting a Responsibility Shared by Many

Preflighting is a methodology employed to ensure that digital files will image correctly and not crash a RIP when they are output. The purpose is to discover problems before they tie up prepress personnel, materials, and equipment.

Experience shows that there are a number of problem issues that commonly recur when files are preflighted, and as such there are standard procedures for dealing with these issues. The latest version of GRACoL, the General Requirements for Applications in Commercial Offset Lithography, published by the Graphic Communications Association, provides guidance in this area.

Electronic files can arrive on several different media: floppy disks; Zip/Jaz, Bernoulli, and optical disks; CDs; and via on-line digital transmission. With so much at stake, prepress service providers and printers should install and consistently use virus protection software.

Sales personnel and customer service representatives also have preflighting responsibilities. They can:

• evaluate the completeness of the output request form,
• see that submitted disks are undamaged and readable,
• check that a laser proof is submitted with the job,
• request in-house font availability,
• check that linked graphics are correct and not missing from the submitted disk,
• find out if a compression program was used but not indicated, and
• ensure that folders and files are neither disorganized nor unusable.

Some of the same preflighting routines can be double-checked during the digital process. It is not uncommon for a customer service representative as well as a preflight technician to check page size. Here, a mistake that one person missed earlier can be caught at a later preflighting stage.

Traditional image assemblers can be a primary resource for preflighting because they understand many of the issues that underlie preflighting and the printing process. Trapping, the responsibility of traditional image assemblers, is now a preflighting task.

Preflight technicians can also serve as output specialists. People who know how to operate various computer platforms (e.g. IBM, Macintosh, Unix); illustration, image manipulation, word processing, and page layout programs; or trapping and imposition software can make excellent preflight technicians.

Skilled preflight technicians can perform the task of preparing files. Different from preflighting, prepping files involves correcting, adjusting, and/or manipulating digital files before final output. This can include recreating poorly constructed objects (like gradations and blends) in order to speed up output, decrease waste, and improve quality.

Preflight technicians can help customers that do not have the expertise to do their own file repair. File repair is usually charged to the customer since it is not included in the original quote, which is based on the receipt of a computer-ready file.

Prepress and printing houses should preflight incoming files when they are received to allow enough time for correction or replacement of the file by the customer. A formalized preflighting checklist, a step-by-step routine for analyzing digital files regardless of the software used, can be a great help.