FlightCheck is Markzware’s next-generation, stand-alone PDF preflight application. This quality control tool will inspect and analyze all colors, fonts, images, and more, within both native and PDF documents. FlightCheck has no required dependencies, which means that neither the native applications nor plug-ins are needed to run this software.
It is complete with Inventory and Packaging functionality to ensure print-ready documents. FlightCheck offers a preview, as well as a thorough analysis and inspection of your desktop publishing (DTP) file content. Preflight Reports can be fully customized with your company information and logo and then exported as HTML, JSON, RTF, TXT or XML, directly into most automated workflows.
FlightCheck provides added value for creatives, graphic designers, and print production specialists seeking an easy-to-use preflighting tool for onboarding document production jobs. This affordable prepress system will preflight a variety of formats, including Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, PDF, QuarkXPress, and several image types, to help ensure error-free document production.
Another benefit of FlightCheck is that it creates a complete, compressed package, so you can send files with all elements of the job for sharing, printing, or archiving. This is extremely convenient for a customer service representative preparing job quotes, or even complete graphic design departments looking to preflight and archive years of work.
One of the key capabilities of FlightCheck is its power to preflight file formats and image types of a wide variety. A partial list includes:
- Adobe InDesign
- Adobe Illustrator
- Adobe Photoshop
- PDF (Portable Document Format)
- QuarkXpress
Other Features include:
In-Depth Inventory
The Inspector Widgets provides a high-level overview of the document. At a glance, you can see which file type, which version, and when the document was last modified. Is it intended for print, mobile, or web? How many pages and spreads are included? Are there any missing or inactive used fonts? Are there missing or embedded images.
Continue with the Inventory View, for a thorough analysis of the document contents. Detailed file, page, and print information is displayed. View all of the job images, both linked and embedded, alongside all of their important details (e.g., type, color mode, resolution, …). You can also see detailed color, page, and font information.
Intelligent Ground Controls
FlightCheck has Ground Controls, which flag a plethora of items in categories, such as File, PDF, Document, Print, Colors, Fonts, Images, and more!
Adobe announced that they will drop support for both PANTONE colors and PostScript Type 1 Fonts. This causes new issues, to which FlightCheck 2023 will alert users. Markzware has included the following Ground Controls:
- Fonts that are Type 1
- Used PANTONE colors not supported by Adobe
- Images that use ICC Profiles Override.
Find & Fix Problems For Proper Output
FlightCheck will highlight errors, during preflight, such as missing fonts and images. The application will also warn about potential issues, such as embedded images or inactive fonts. Prepress specialists can use FlightCheck to help avoid any of these errors, which could cause common printing problems, or worse, re-printing the entire job.
Collect & Package
FlightCheck excels at collecting and packaging required job elements, ensuring you have everything needed for the next step in your workflow. Packaged items include:
- Original DTP file (INDD, QXP, PDF, AI, …)
- Exported PDF file
- Converted IDML file*
- Linked Images
- Extracted Embedded Images
- Used Fonts
- Inventory Report (as HTML, TXT, RTF, JSON, or XML)
- Package Report (as HTML, TXT, RTF, JSON, or XML)
