If you are unfamiliar with “Preflighting,” in the printing world this is the term used to signify a thorough check of “print ready” artwork to be sure that it is truly “print ready.” You may be an outstanding designer and you may create nothing less than one complete masterpiece after another, but if you are unfamiliar with the complete printing process, then you may wish to consider this service before sending your artwork directly to your printer. When there are issues with your press ready PDF supplied directly to your printer there is a high likelihood that one of the three following situations will occur.
- Your printer will place your job on hold with questions or concerns, causing major delays in your printing process. Since it is quite common to have extremely tight deadlines, this can often be much more than just a minor inconvenience.
- Your printer will find a way to make all of the necessary corrections needed to your files, and pass on unexpected extra charges to you or your client in doing so.
- Your job will be printed just the way your files have been supplied, having unexpected and disappointing results.
RGB Images
RGB Images can sometimes cause postscript interpretation errors when a job is sent to the RIP (Raster Image Processor) device at the printing stage, but more often than this, major unexpected color shifting will occur. Because the “RGB” color range is much larger than the “CMYK” color range, many “RGB” colors can be extremely difficult to reproduce when a job is printed in “CMYK”.
Non-Converted Spot Colors
This is much the same as “RGB” colors, except worse. Many spot ink colors cannot be achieved in RGB or CMYK, making some colors totally impossible to match in a CMYK printing environment. Note: When a specific spot color is important, spot color printing is always an option, but is often a much more expensive process as a special ink would need to be mixed by your printer.
Low Resolution Images
When a low res. (or low resolution) continuous tone image is used for printing, your images will be blurry and/or pixelated when printed. Even though a 72 ppi (pixels per inch) image is considered to be perfectly acceptable for web use and looks fine on a monitor, a 72 dpi (dots per inch) image will look horrible when it is printed. The standard resolution for optimal printing is 300 dpi. In most cases Sharkey Graphic Solutions will flag any image under 250 dpi when preflighting a job received.
Missing Bleeds
When bleeds have not been included in your print ready files, you run the likely risk of several distasteful issues. If the files are used as provided, it is almost a guarantee that you will be seeing a thin white line of varying thicknesses on the outside edges which often alternate from side to side throughout the press run. It is important to remember that there is always a certain amount of slight variance when a job is cut down to its final size. Sometimes your printer may completely enlarge your file supplied to achieve a full bleed, cutting off important parts of your artwork in doing so. Other times your printer may under-trim your finished piece, thus making your product smaller than it should be to compensate for this problem.
Crops Marks in Bleed Area
When you have crop marks in your standard 1/8” bleed area, this actually destroys the purpose of having a bleed to begin with. In all of the Adobe products we have used, the default distance of trim marks from the final trim is set at .0833”, which is roughly 1/16”. If the Adobe default is used, you will now end up with roughly 1/16” of true bleed instead of the standard 1/8” required by most printers.
Incorrect Pagination
Most printers are usually more than happy to receive your files as single pages, but if you are printing a book with large amount of crossover pages it may be preferable to supply your files as printer spreads. It is common for this to be done incorrectly, resulting in a mix of reader spreads and printer spreads. Printer spreads are how the sheets actually need to be printed to achieve reader spreads when the book is bound.
Unembedded Fonts
When fonts are not embedded in your print ready PDF, very serious problem can often occur. If a common font is used, such as “Arial” or “Times New Roman,” you may not have a problem since these fonts are usually available on your printer’s computer. If a less common unembedded font is used and this font is not on your printer’s computer, an entirely different font is usually automatically substituted in place of the one you have used causing your text to reflow and ever disappear partially or completely.
Missing Printer Fonts
This problem is much like the one mentioned above, in that the resulting problems and issues are exactly the same.
Objects or Type Cutting Off
This is just a result of human error, which makes a great case for having a secondary party proofread and/or preflight your digital artwork. If we spot something like this we will of course bring it to your attention, or include it in our preflighting report at the very least.
Black Type Printing in CMYK
It is very common to wind up having your black text being built in all 4 CMYK colors when exporting PDFs from Microsoft programs such as “Word” or “Publisher,” as these programs are not truly designed to print from (or print correctly from in a professional printing environment.) When your black type is printed in CMYK it will often cause your black type to look bold, fuzzy or have halos of the extra colors being printed.
Large Black Areas Not Built as “Rich Black”
When a large solid black background is used in artwork supplied, if it is built from 100% K (black), the final printed product will actually appear as gray. To achieve a deep rich black color for large black backgrounds or shapes, the black should be built as “Rich Black.” This is typically 60% Cyan, 40% Magenta, 30% Yellow & 100% Black.
Type Too Close to Trim
When type and critical copy is too close to trim, there is always a risk of cutting off critical information. Most presses also require a minimum of 3/8” gripper margin. In addition it usually looks more aesthetically pleasing to have your type printing within a 3/8”-1” margin within your sheet (1/8”-1/4” on business cards & 1”-6” for large banners).
Copy Off Center
This is purely about aesthetics. This may seam like a minor thing to worry about, but giving a professional appearance can mean the difference between success and failure. As an example, a tri-fold brochure may be someone’s first impression of your company or charitable organization, and it’s always important to remember that you can only make a first impression once.
Layout Errors
This is a relatively general term, used to cover all of the bases with proper layout details needed to produce a perfect final printed product. Pocket Folders are a great example of a printed product which can have a somewhat complex layout and need to be carefully designed.
Butting Pages Not Trapping
When pages do not butt correctly, it will stand out horribly when the job gets printed. Keep this in mind when you are designing your project.
Crossover Spread Pages Out of Alignment
Crossover spreads are usually extremely important to most clients, so it is very important that they align perfectly.
Missing Links
If links are missing they wont be printed, so this is obviously an extremely important issue.
Black Type Knocking Out of Background
100% black type should ALWAYS be set to overprint to avoid any type of registration issues.
And much more…
*NOTE: Proofreading your text for typographical errors is not included in our preflight services. Proofreading text is only included by Sharkey Graphic Solutions when we are the actual graphic designer of your artwork. Our client assumes full responsibility for any and all errors not spotted on the final PDF proof.
