Tutorial: InDesign CS4 Live Preflighting
- Article 14 of 16
- Macworld, February 2009
How to automatically check your document will print correctly
One of the biggest nightmares anyone working in production can have is finding out at the last minute - or later than the last minute - that their document has problems that are preventing it from being printed. Checking the document meets the printer's specifications - aka preflighting - does at least take some of the risk out of sending files to the printer, but it takes time, usually something in scare supply at the end of the production process.
One of the new features in InDesign CS4 is Live Preflighting. Although InDesign CS3 and earlier had a preflighting function, it was something that had to be run manually. CS4 enables preflighting as you work. It allows you to create preflight profiles against which it which check all aspects of the document to ensure they conform. Profile requirements can include such things as the document having the correct number of pages, minimum and maximum resolutions for different classes of images, the number of spot colours, whether there's overset text and more.
If there are any problems with the document, InDesign will flag them up in the new Preflight Panel, provide you with information about by the error has been raised and allow you to easily locate and fix the error.
Although profiles can only be created in InDesign - Acrobat profiles can't be used - it's very easy to pass them around, since you can embed them in documents (automatically if you wish) and export them and import them as well.
In this How to... we're going to show you how to create, manage and embed profiles, as well as how to use them to locate problems with your documents. All you'll need to follow the How to... is a copy of InDesign CS 4 and a document that's ready or almost ready to send to the printers.