Adobe Indesign CS4 – Preflighting as you work
New to Adobe InDesign CS4, Live Preflight lets you monitor documents as you create them to prevent potential printing problems from occurring. In publishing, preflighting is the process of ensuring that a document is created properly for its intended output. For example, preflighting can ensure that a document has all the font and graphic files it needs and that no RGB graphics are used in a CMYK workflow. In the past, preflighting was considered a post-production process.
You can create or import production rules (called profiles) against which to check your documents.
- Choose Window > Output > Preflight to open the Preflight panel. You can also click the Preflight button in the lower-left corner of the document window.
- Select B&W Job (embedded) from the Profile menu.
- In the Error column, click the arrow next to COLOR. Then, click the arrow next to Cyan, Magenta, or Yellow Plate.
TIP: If InDesign detects any preflighting issues as you work—for example, if text is overset or you import an RGB graphic—the error is reported in the lower-left corner of the document window. To continually check your work, you can leave the Preflight panel open.
- Select [Basic] from the Profile menu again.
- Click the Preflight panel’s close button.
- Choose File > Save to save your work so far.
Using the [Basic] or default preflight profile, InDesign finds no errors, as indicated by the green Preflight icon in the lower-left corner of the Preflight panel.
Since the profile specifies black-and-white output, 33 errors related to color plates are reported.