Finding Potential Printing Problems Automatically.
Finding Potential Printing Problems Automatically. from Jeff Witchel on Vimeo.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could automatically check out your InDesign layouts for potential printing problems before sending the files to your printer?
In this tutorial, Adobe Certified Instructor Jeff Witchel discusses setting up your own custom Preflight Profiles.
See more videos at LayersMagazine.com.
Nicely done!
You used the term “effective resolution” … I’ll bet that most InDesign users don’t really understand what that is … or they think that it is the same thing as scanned resolution.
Cheers,
Stephen
Hi Stephen,
You’re probably right.
I should have explained that “effective resolution” is the resolution of an image at the size it is being used in the layout. In other words, a 300 ppi image being used at 50% has an “effective resolution” of 600 ppi.
Good catch!
Thanks you for your input.
Best,
Jeff
InDesign is a really great pogrram for designing layouts for print. It will allow you to do much more than most pogrrams.Most printing companies can deal with a wide variety of files, but there are a few you should stick with to be on the safe side. If you’re designing in InDesign, I would go with Adobe PDF file extensions, as InDesign can export them to PDF for you, therefore saving you from any kind of compatibility problems, and will keep the file looking the same as in InDesign. I would think that any printing company you go to can handle a PDF file. If you’re not planning on going to a high end printing company, Office Max or Staples can handle most any type of file (I used to work at Office Max, we’d get every kind of file imaginable).As far as designing the magazine, without knowing much about what you’re doing, I can’t really give much suggestion. However, a handy thing I learned about laying out print files is to make sure you have a bleed on the pages. A bleed is just a quarter of an inch margin outside the page dimensions to compensate for error on the printers part or in trimming of the pages. If you’re just printing letter size at somewhere like Office Max, you probably don’t need to worry about this, but it just makes the pages look better in places such as where a photo runs off the page. Also, if you have a photo that spans across two pages, you won’t have a blank space where it connects.
Hi Aia,
You’re right! InDesign is the best layout application around.I switched from Quark about eight years ago and never looked back.
All my best,
Jeff
Nice tutorial Jeff. It is nice how InDesign takes you right to the issue. For those that want stand-alone preflighting, please also check out Markzware FlightCheck (I represent Markzware). This will not only preflight and package InDesign files, but also Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, PDFs and even QuarkXPress type DTP layouts. See: http://markzware.com/products/flightcheck/
Thank you and have a nice day,
David Dilling
Markzware
Hi David,
Glad you liked my tutorial.
Markzware makes some excellent apps. I used Q2ID for years and thought it was terrific at converting QuarkXPress layouts to InDesign. It saved me a lot of time and my clients a lots of money. Does anyone still use Quark? Just curious! My Quark-to-InDesign training has dropped way off.
Now, the real question. Why would I pay $400 for FlightCheck, when I already get something similar in InDesign for free? I did not see anything about CS6 support in your link. Is it coming soon?
All my best,
Jeff
A bit surprised it seems to smilpe and yet useful.
Hi Celeste,
Glad you liked it.
Best,
Jeff