Five Preflighting Errors to Avoid
The ability to spot an error before a job is sent to production is an invaluable skill that saves time and money. The following is a list of the essential bits of information to understand when preparing or preflighting files to avoid common pitfalls.
1. RGB vs. CMYK
All images and colors should be converted to CMYK before being sent to print. This ensures that colors convert properly and helps to avoid drastic color shifts when printed. If a color shift occurs when the colors are switched in software, editing should take place to fix the shift. Working in a color managed environment will help to minimize these issues by calibrating and profiling hardware and using ICC profiles to keep color consistent.
2. Font issues
When selecting fonts for usage, make sure to purchase fonts from reputable vendors. Avoid free fonts unless you can run them through a font verification program such as Extensis FontDoctor to check their validity. Being proactive with fonts can save headaches later. Corrupt fonts can happen because of poor build quality from inexperienced typeface designers, or they may corrupt simply because of a malfunction somewhere in the workflow. Whatever the issue may be, make sure to be ready by reading the EULA (End User License Agreement) of the font to know what you can and cannot do to it. For example a EULA may prevent you from outlining a font. If this is the case and the font corrupts, you will need to replace the font with something similar.
3. Transparency Issues
Transparency issues can be very common. These issues may appear for different reason depending on the RIP software being used and the preparation of the file. While each RIP software may have a different way of dealing with these issues, you can avoid trouble by using the proper file preparation techniques. In vector programs such as Adobe Illustrator, be sure to save files as their native file format. In image editing applications such as Adobe Photoshop, save images as native files (PSD) or EPS and properly cut out backgrounds. Avoid using layered TIFFs or any other format (such as PNGs for web) as PSD and EPS are the most reliable for print production. JPEGs can be used, but they should typically be avoided in print production, which brings me to the next point.
4. Avoid the use of JPEGs
JPEG is a fantastic file format for photographers. They are universally accepted and have relatively small file sizes. JPEGs, however, obtain those small file sizes because they are a lossy file format, which means they discard information in order to compress the file. Compression is great for storing images, but not for printing high quality images in print production. Print quality is not the only issue; image corruption is also possible. Because JPEGs are compressed, they are continually downgrading and removing information, which leads to a higher instance of corruption than a TIFF for example. TIFFs are a lossless file format. Even though TIFFs result in larger files, corruption is much less likely, therefore a TIFF is a safer raster file format for print production.
5. Spelling and Grammar
This may sound obvious, but running spell check and proofreading any and all documents before sending them to output is still crucial. Depending on the workflow, each person on the chain may believe that this is somebody else’s job, and it never gets done properly. Such an obvious error can be just as detrimental as any other error on this list.
Checking over these areas before sending a document to print will help to ensure an efficient workflow, and should minimize errors and shrinkage.
Rion Huffman is an assistant professor of Graphics and Imaging Technologies at Pittsburg State University. He teaches courses covering print file preparation and preflighting, color reproduction and photography. He has been teaching for six years and was previously a graphic designer and prepress technician at a daily newspaper as well as a professional photographer.
