“Stop the presses.” This famous line, uttered in many a Hollywood melodrama, evokes images of change and immediacy. However, stopping the presses costs time and money.

Typically, when a printing press is stopped, it is the result of a major imaging error. Reversed colors, major amounts of missing type or incorrect information may be the typical culprits. Yet imaging errors are often problems that should, and can, be found before the press begins to run and before the printing plates are burned. Having a solid prepress workflow is one of the ways to make sure the presses run on time and the printed pages are error-free.

Digital dominance

The technological sea change that has washed over newspapers’ prepress and graphics departments is well-known. Today, many publications rely on a total digital workflow, marrying ads and editorial and then going direct-to-plate.

That shift has made it even more critical that errors are caught before images are captured on plate.

That’s where preflighting can help. Preflighting software offers users a set of tools that automatically check all elements of a page to make sure they can be imaged or distilled into a PDF correctly.

Postflighting, on the other hand, includes checking the final, married product before the plate or film is created. It also includes a final check of the PDF.

One of the current challenges newspapers are facing is how to manage the wide variety of ads they are now collecting electronically. The increasing use of color only compounds the task.

The management of these electronic files and preflighting them before their introduction into the publication workflow can indeed help newspapers either make or break budgets.

Helping avoid errors

Since the advent of digital file transfers, graphics professionals have relied on preflight software.

One such application, Markznet, from Marksware Software, typifies how preflighting is designed to work.

The app prescreens files before they enter the workflow in order to stop any potential print or imaging problems.

But software only works as well as the policies a newspaper has in place to govern how pages are produced.

To that end, newspapers should always be in constant communication with their advertising contacts. Advertisers, agencies and other companies transmitting files need to know what’s expected of them. Size, ink density and color space are a few of the items requiring attention when processing digitally produced ad files and pages.

Check before entering

Ïewspapers’ prepress departments also have to be prepared to process a wide variety of digital formats — from PDFs to ads created in Microsoft Publisher. All have to be checked before entering the workflow.

Some of the most common errors: missing fonts and images, incorrect color separations and incorrect ad size builds.

When installing an upfront preflight system, all of the documents coming into the publication are first scanned. A report should be generated and sent to both parties outlining any potential imaging problems.

One of the newer common errors to crop up in newspaper production is the misuse of color. Color densities are very important, as newsprint often can become a huge paper towel.

Ensuring that ink is controlled properly reduces the likelihood of wet pages, smeared copy and web breaks.

Pre-separation critical

Pre-separating images is also critical. Offset printing relies on a CMYK platform. But many ad agencies leave their images as RGB color space. Finally, newspapers and advertisers must make sure that images contain the proper resolution supporting optimal imaging on-press.

With a policy firmly in place, newspapers can determine which party will be responsible for correcting any errors detected within a preflight test.

The current trend is to rely on PDF as a fail-safe method of delivering an ad file. PDFs, which help compress a file and enable it to be sent over a Web connection, is not always fail-safe, however.

With dozens of digital documents composing each newspaper page, it’s likely you’ll find some errors when processing electronic files. But having a workflow that features preflighting as an integral step in stopping your production manager from shutting down the presses.

Ken Spears is the publisher of CrossMedia magazine. He has had extensive experience working in the production and prepress departments at a number of publications including the Los Angeles Daily Journal, Micro Publishing News and Digital Imaging magazine.