FlightCheck

Preflight, in the graphic arts industry, is the process of checking a digital document before it goes to plate, print or otherwise output (exported - such as to PDF). It traditionally is a way to check quality before going to the printing press, digital or otherwise, but can also be used to check any common artwork file. Preflight is best done on the source desktop publishing document, or before creating a PDF (Portable Document Format)file.

The term preflight was first used during a presentation in 1990 by Chuck Weger, a well known industry consultant. There were some early on postscript RIPs that interpreted data and provided a preflight report of sorts. The first commercial preflight application came from [http://www.markzware.com/ Markzware] called FlightCheck.

FlightCheck first appeared at the Seybold Seminars Conference at San Francisco in the Fall of 1995 [http://www.macworld.com/article/1451/2002/05/marchese.html Pro File: Taking Flight - Macworld 2002] ] . U.S. Patent, number 5,963,641 [http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=5,963,641.PN.&OS=PN/5,963,641&RS=PN/5,963,641 U.S. Patent Office 5,963,641] ] was subsequently granted - ‘Device and method for examining, verifying, correcting and approving electronic documents prior to printing, transmission or recording.’

FlightCheck is a stand-alone application that performs preflight quality control inspection on many common file types such as Adobe InDesign, PageMaker, Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, QuarkXPress and PDF [http://www.printweek.com/ProductsAndReviews/StarProduct/news/785773/FlightCheck-Professional-v610/ FlightCheck Professional v6.10 - PrintWeek 2008] ] .

Other preflighting tools have subsequently been introduced, including Enfocus PitStop, Callas PDFInspecktor, Dalim Twist and others [http://www.desktoppublishing.com/preflight.html PreFlight and PrePress Software - desktoppublishing.com] ] ; focusing on PDF preflighting.

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