Preflight for Graphic Design and Prepress, an Application or Process? Designers and prepress operators often think of Preflight as an application. An application that runs on files to verify files and identify potential problems. I have trained hundreds of operators in how to prepare First Time Right Postscript and PDF files. That’s the first thing that I set folks straight on. Preflight is a process. It’s a process of going through every predictable problem that can happen with your printing job. If you think it’s a software that you run and that’s it, you are not going to be able to produce First Time Right PDF files. There are many, many things that software cannot even check for, and things unique to YOUR jobs, customers, company that are important. Things that MUST be checked to ensure success and accuracy.50% of commercial printing is headed for a delay or additional costs: P equifax dispute ublishers and printers regularly report more than 50 percent of the digital files they receive are improperly prepared to spec. Thus, these files will need preflight & then repair to go forward. This may be done by a publisher, printer, or kicked back to the graphic designer. At stake is the budget and schedule of the print project. Now, think about that… 50% of commercial printing projects are destined for a delay in schedule or additional costs when submitted! A graphic design project may be made for print, web, and or video. Depending on the type of media, documents must be prepared exactly to specifications based on final output media. Common file flaws include fonts not embedded or supplied, color space(CMYK vs. RGB, or inappropriate use of Pantone or specialty colors), and resolution conflicts. These are some of the many things that can be identified quickly by Preflight tools.