Episode II: Production Issues Strike Back

Page 3


5. Preflight Support

Definition: The term preflight is derived from an airplane pilot's check of his/her aircraft. Prior to takeoff, pilots perform a routine check of the aircraft to determine if any obvious malfunction that may cause a crash is likely to occur. In much the same manner, a routine check of digital files must be performed prior to Raster Image Processing (RIP) to determine obvious problems and eliminate likely crash causes. If a preflight is not performed on the files to output, crashes may occur.

GPO requires that all vendors perform a preflight of all electronic government furnished materials (EGFM) submitted by the Government. The following language is usually included in all GPO contracts that use EGFM.

GPO Language:
Prior to image processing, the contractor shall perform a basic check (preflight) of the furnished media and publishing files to assure correct output of the required reproduction image(s). Any errors, media damage, or data corruption that might interfere with proper filee image processing must be reported to the GPO.

The contractor shall create, or alter any necessary trapping, set or alter proper screen angles and screen frequency, and define file output selection for the imaging device being utilized. Furnished files must be imaged as necessary to meet the assigned quality level.

Unfortunately, OG applications do not have preflight capabilities built-in to the software. Why? The primary reason is because OG applications are not designed as a print publishing tool. To make matters worse, the third party programs that are designed for Preflight (e.g., Preflight Pro, FlightCheck) do not currently support OG files. [At the time of this publishing, only Markzware's FlightCheck Classic (Macintosh version) provides support for OG files. This application supports MS Word files only (Mac or Windows.)] Consequently, vendors have no defined way to perform a check of any OG files. In other words, there is no way for the commercial print community to perform the required check of EGFM if the material is from an OG application.


6. No Package or Save for Service Provider Feature.

Most successful EGFM submissions are composed of three parts: 1) Layout file, 2) Supporting graphics 3) Supporting fonts. Without all three, it is common for problems to occur at output. Understanding this need to collect all information, developers of PG software have included "Collect for Output…" or "Save for Service Provider…" features into their products. These features automatically copy the main layout file, any necessary fonts, and all used graphics to a secondary location (e.g., removable disk). All elements are collected automatically, requiring little or no intervention by the customer. OG applications, on the other hand, do not have any feature that allows for packaging an EGFM submission. Users of OG applications must manually copy all necessary elements to a secondary drive for submission of EGFM to GPO. Since many publications use multiple fonts and graphics, it is common for customers to omit a required font and/or graphic. These omissions occur frequently with OG files.



7. Image Creation

Besides being used as layout applications, OG software is frequently used to create images, charts, artwork, and other graphic elements. Again, let us refer to our opening quote on page one: "OG applications are incompatible with commercial offset printing." Therefore, using Excel to create a chart or graph, even if the graph is cut and pasted into a page layout program, is a recipe for failure. OG clip art, even art that was supplied with the application, is also known to cause problems.

Why all the problems with OG graphics? Remember the RGB issues from earlier? The same issues exist in any graphical element created in OG applications. Other issues exist as well. Stroke weights (the thickness of lines in charts and graphs) are typically ill defined by OG applications for high-resolution output. In many cases, the rules are so thin as to be virtually invisible when output at 1200 DPI or higher.

What else? OG applications do not typically support export to either .EPS or .TIFF graphic file formats. As mentioned earlier in this article, the printing industry provides support primarily for .EPS and .TIFF, while other formats cause output problems. Since graphics from OG applications can not be saved in an appropriate format (without considerable work), many vendors will fail to properly RIP any embedded or cut and pasted graphic that originated in an OG application.

 

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