A Practical Preflight Checklist
The following checklist is a guide to help set up and send your work for printing; to help eliminate problems, speed up production and ensure that you get the printed job that you where expecting.
Document Checks1. Pages are set to correct finished size
If your documents finished size is A4 set the the page size to 297mm x 210mm, do not place it in the middle of an A3 page.
2. 3mm bleed has been applied
3. Folded jobs have the correct page size and back up correctly. This is particularly important for 6pp DL roll fold leaflets as the page that folds into the middle is on the left of the outside spread but on the right of the inside spread.
4. Check for left & right hand pages
Page numbers appear on the left of a left hand page and right on a right hand page, margins may also be different.
Text Checks1. Fonts supplied or embedded into the document
2. Spelling and grammar has been checked
3. Page numbering is in correct order and agrees with the contents or index page if any
Colour Checks1. Convert all colours to CMYK if printing CMYK
2. Spot colours are named correctly and consistently if printing in spot colours
Image Checks1. All images are CMYK not RGB
2. All image files are supplied or embedded
3. 300dpi resolution on all images – litho & digital
4. 100 – 150dpi resolution on all images – large format
Sending Checks1. Create single page high resolution print ready pdf – do not impose
2. 3mm bleed applied
3. Crop marks have been added
4. Supply cutting form file if the job is to be die cut to shape
5. Contact printer if files emailed or uploaded to ftp site
