Smart Preflight

Overview

Smart Preflight is a new functionality that unlocks the full potential of a Preflight Profile to be able to check and also fix a PDF file. Without Smart Preflight a PitStop Pro user would need to create many different profiles to handle different job types and specifications, however with Smart Preflight this is no longer the case.

Smart Preflight does this by allowing users to define variable values that can overridden at the time of processing or a rule based check can be defined allowing other conditions in a job to affect the outcome for a specific check.

Examples:

Page Size: You can now have one single Preflight Profile that allows you to check for any possible page size. I set a default value that corresponds to my most commonly used size and then if I want to check a different size I simply enter the new size just before running the preflight check.

Number of Separations: A Preflight Profile value can now be adjusted at runtime if you desire so you can accurately check the number of color separations contained in a file. So it does not matter if your job is Black and a Spot Color, or CMYK and two Spot Colors, you can accurately check both files from the same Preflight Profile.

Total Ink Coverage based on Printing Conditions: Total Ink Coverage limits are dependent on several different factors. The paper type I am using plays a significant role as does the printing method or device I am printing on. Therefore it is possible using Smart Preflight for me to get a value for my Total Ink Coverage by entering my paper type (Uncoated stock) and my printing method (Sheetfed Litho) and then having the value for Total Ink Coverage calculated by a Rule Based Variable.

How to get started with Smart Preflight

To begin Smart Preflight, you need a set of variables to use with your Preflight Profiles, these can be defined and saved in a Variable Set. A Variable Set is basically a set of different variables saved within a file format which can be imported and exported. The Variable Set allows variables to be saved, edited and used when required. You can define as many Variable Sets as you need and each Variable Set can contain as many variables as required, however, you can only activate one Variable Set at a time.

Before building a Variable Set, you need to decide which values should have a variable option. An approach is to list common preflight settings that can change from job to job and settings that are often the same. Ones that may change from job to job are good candidates for a variable.