With the rapid development of computer technology and network communication technology, the printing and publishing industry has undergone earth-shaking changes, and the traditional printing process has been greatly affected. PDF (Portable File Format) has become an electronic file popular in recent years. Format, you can use Adobe Acrobat Reader to view, browse and print PDF files. Adobe Acrobat 6.0 and PDF 1.5 are a technological advancement over Adobe Acrobat 4.0 and PDF 1.3, respectively, introduced in 1990. Today, PDF has become an irreplaceable file format for prepress and high-quality printing.
First, what is the pre-print PDF?
Preflighting PDFs For Print Preflighting PDFs For Print uses the English word Preflighting to refer to the preflight work done before the plane takes off to ensure flight safety. Preflighting is used in the printing industry, which means preflight work before printing. Pre-screening before printing is undoubtedly crucial to the entire printing process.
As the printing industry continues to adopt new technologies, not only the color desktop publishing system (DTP) and the computer-to-plate system (CTP), but also a variety of new process flows are emerging. In the face of a large number of new technologies, many experts in the electronic publishing industry predict that the final printer will only need to accept PDF files. Therefore, in the pre-screening work before printing, the pre-printing PDF is predominantly emphasized. However, according to estimates by the US Printing Technology Foundation (GATF) and the Seybold magazine, only 23% to 30% of all documents currently prepared for printing in the United States use Adobe's PDF format. Over time, this number will continue to rise. The use of PDF file format in China is a matter of recent years, and it is mostly used for network transmission. It is mainly used for the transmission of office documents, online e-books, etc. The use of PDF in the printing industry is relatively small.
Second, why use pre-printing PDF before printing?
Since the PDF generator and receiver are independent of the operating system platform in the print production process, the PDF file format retains all the information of the original file such as characters, fonts, layouts, colors, etc. At the same time it uses industry-standard compression algorithms to make files The capacity is small, it is easy to store and transmit quickly, and it has the function of soft proofing. It is easy to pre-check, and the file browsing is not limited by the operating system, network environment, and application version. Therefore, the PDF file format will quickly be applied to various fields. However, in the printing industry, there are still many imperfections in the generation of PDF for printing, and sometimes the receiver receives the customer's PDF. The most common problems with the customer's PDF file are the font is not embedded, the resolution is too low, there is no bleeding, and the color space used by the user is not right. In order to ensure that the whole process of prepress and printing can proceed smoothly, PDF as an inherent file format, it is necessary to conduct pre-inspection.
Acrobat 6.0 Professional, together with various PDF plug-ins and applications, now allows us to build a good workflow for accurately generating, preflighting, and editing PDF documents. When linking good upstream and downstream prepress practices, PDF documents can be successfully optimized to achieve high-quality printing results.
Third, PDF pre-test products
Many vendors provide products that help users generate optimized PDFs, as well as manage, inspect, and modify PDF files. The following briefly describes several software that can be used for PDF preflighting or editing.
1. Adobe's Arobat 6.0 Professional
At the heart of Acrobat 6.0 Professional preflighting capabilities is the Callas software company's pdfInspektor2, along with ICC profiles, which provide PDF/X-1a and PDF/X-3 generation and validation. At the same time, in order to preflight over 400 criteria in the PDF, the settings (rules and conditions) of the properties file can be predefined. Users can define new profiles or modify existing profiles by adding, deleting, or editing rules and conditions. You can also create continuous batches that can import or export profiles. During a preflight, if there is a conflict between the rules or conditions stated in a document priority and in the selected profile, they are listed in the preflight results and are optionally reported. pdfInspektor2 also provides a quick overview of the list of details identified in the preflight. After the preflight, you can add a confirmation icon to inform prepress service personnel and other users about the validity of PDF documents. The icon is embedded in the results of the Preflight Profile and Preflight Report, and a time icon is generated that allows the user to see if the file was changed at the preflight.
When integrating workflow products, pdfInspektor2 can also generate reports in XML format; when used with AutoPilot, pdfInspektor2 Auto can be used automatically. Automation is also the name of the processing/prepress program in the Callas software, which provides output centers and printers with a common server-based folder system to automatically monitor and pre-check received PDFs and convert them into PDF/X format.
2. Apago's PDF/X Checkup 3.0
PDF/X Checkup 3.0 is a plug-in for Adobe Acrobat for generating, preflighting, and automatically editing PDF/X-1a and PDF/X-3 files. Version 3.0 adds several new features, including PDF/X Plus workflow checking, and is compatible with Acrobat 6.0 and Mac OS X.
PDF/X Checkup 3.0 includes two additional plugins: ImageAlter and BoxEditor. ImageAlter allows the user to modify the resolution, compress the image, and change the image color of the PDF file. BoxEditor is a plug-in that quickly edits the bleed and cut frames required by PDF/X. It has a library for storing published specifications at any time. When the user clicks the "Fix All" button, Checkup automatically corrects most errors to produce a correct PDF. The /X file also adds any missing tags required by the PDF/X standard. In addition, Checkup can add or modify output intents, either using a registered name or using an ICC profile, as required by PDF/X. The Checkup Details window lists all the errors or warnings found during the preflight and stores the complete report as a text file. PDF/X Checkup can detect TrueType fonts, JPEG images, spot colors, image resolution, and more.
3. ARTS PDF ImageWorks 2.0 and Crackerjack 4.2
Both products provide some preflight features, although they are not considered as true preflight products, but they can be used as image editing and color separation tools, respectively.
ARTS PDF's ImageWorks allows you to perform color transformations, image modifications, and image resampling, all without having to leave Acrobat. ARTS PDF's Crackerjack allows you to examine PDF documents with embedded or unembedded fonts, with options for correcting, printing, or eliminating print jobs. ARTS PDF Print Suite Plus bundles these two products.
4. Creo's Synapse Prepare Pro 2.0
Synapse Prepare Pro 2.0 is a process tool for generating and preflighting upstream PDFs (targeted to high-end users), allowing users to quickly generate PDF files and precisely match the technical specifications of a specific printing environment. The product specifications provided by the printing press are given in the form of "instructions". Users can generate accurate PDF files from original applications such as QuarkXPress and Adobe InDesign. The PDF can also include preflight information, and the press runs its customer's PDF files via Synapse Prepare Pro to perform preflight checks and generate reports. These reports are called log files and list general information, errors and warnings as well as fonts, colors, images, etc. Some errors can be automatically corrected (such as RGB conversion to CMYK), and some errors require the user to return to the original file for modification.
5. SWiNG ​​ViSA 1.0 for DALiM
SWiNG ​​ViSA 1.0 is a new server-based tool for generating, preflighting, and optimizing PDFs, using a "soft interpolation" strategy to preflight PDFs at generation points. As a Linux-based full contract server sold to Macintosh customers and installed on the client. SWiNG ​​ViSA can generate PDFs accurately. The output options are locked directly in the Macintosh Print dialog box, or can be assigned to the desktop hot folder according to the exact specifications of the printing supplier. Prints in the background according to the predefined settings (it appears in the Print dialog drop-down menu item) and executes the Postscript to PDF conversion process. If printing fails, Auto-preflight generates a report that needs to be modified. If passed, a PDF is generated and automatically sent to the printer via any number conversion method (FTP, VPN, etc.). SWiNG ​​ViSA can perform PDF/X-1a and PDF/X-3 specifications, or any set of specifications attached to the printer.
6. Enfocus Instant PDF 2.2, StatusCheck 1.2, PitStop Professional 6.0, PitStop Server 3.0
Enfocus's products have powerful upstream and downstream settings and provide instructions for all stages of PDF generation, preflighting, editing, and printing, and are called Certified PDF Workflows. When the certified PDF encounters PDF/X or other domestic and foreign standards, the certified preflight profile is enforced.
In the Enfocus certified workflow, the PDF generation process can be started with an instant-executed PDF, and the Adobe Acrobat plug-in defines the correct settings for the target PDF in the Adobe Acrobat Distiller (such as encountering the PDF/X Plus specification), which is defined in the print queue. Enfocus PDF generates a preflighted PDF for immediate execution. If an error is found, the producer returns to the original file, corrects the error and resends it to the PDF print queue. StatusCheck is a plug-in for both Adobe Reader and genuine Adobe Acrobat. StatusCheck allows anyone to check the status of a document's certified PDF, and is widely used to pre-install PDF standard feature files such as PDF/X-1a, PDF/X Plus, and PDF/X-3, as well as native PDF specifications such as Ghent PDF Workgroup members PDF feature files.
A more sophisticated PDF workflow, including PitStop Professional, passes preflights and edits interactively. The PitStop Professional tool allows you to check and automatically or manually correct the most common 100 errors in your PDF file, making text, images, line drawings, colors, and other PDF properties change. When pre-screening PDF files, Enfocus Certified PDF technology is embedded in reports in PDF profiles, preflight files. When the user edits, visual feedback is immediately available, all editing and timestamping can be tracked, version editing and rollback are allowed. Enfocus also offers the PitStop server for automatic confirmation, preflighting and correction of PDFs.
Enfocus also created CertifiedPDF.net, an online PDF specification resource. The distributor can be loaded with certified profiles and other specifications of the printing customer for download and installation by the user to ensure that the PDF is generated based on the user's printing requirements.
7. Jaws PDF Courier 1.4 by Global Graphics
Jaws PDF Courier is a web software development kit (SDK) for upstream preflighting for customer sites to ensure that customer-generated PDF files can be printed. Using servers and customer-based applications, users of printing companies can build custom web publishing and PDF workflow document delivery services. With Jaws PDF Courier, generating custom PDFs can be previewed and pre-screened. For the sake of security, it can be automatically encrypted and then automatically transmitted to the location of the printer for decryption. The file is confirmed here and ready to print a report to the customer. The Enfocus PitStop library is used during preflighting to correct errors automatically. Browse-based job ticket information can be integrated into the Jaws PDF Courier workflow.
8. MarkChecker's FlightCheck Professional 5.0
Markzware's FlightCheck Professional 5.0 is the latest version of the universal preflight tool. FlightCheck Professional uses a simple drag interface to scan various types
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