Pre-flighting, the process of confirming that files for a print job are all correctly formatted, can go a long way to eradicating file application problems. Through pre-flighting, the document size, margins, bleeds, marks and page information are all adapted to suit the output device. It also checks that fonts are accessible to the system and are not corrupt, that image files are in the correct colour format and that colour profiles are included.

So, armed with that information, you'd think that everyone would be pre-flighting. But that's not the case. According to a survey carried out by Readex Research on behalf of Enfocus, 40% of PDF files do not get pre-flighted.

Big investment
One reason may be that it takes a lot of time, effort and money to implement pre-flighting, as it does with a complete workflow. A high level of technical support and experience is needed in implementing a complete workflow system, according to Andrew Pieroux, workflow solutions brand manager at Xerox UK.

"It's also worth understanding how well any workflow software will scale for the future," says Pieroux. He adds that it's tricky to keep making endless additional investments in workflow, so any system should be scalable.

RIPs, also part of a good workflow system, take a page as it is laid out and process it into a raster image to be sent to an output device. They process the information going through them in the form of a bitmap, which is sent to a printing device as a PostScript or PDF file.

According to Andy Hemmings, sales director at StudioRIP, there has been a greater emphasis on consolidation of software tools. For example, companies are opting to incorporate imposition tools within the RIP architecture.
"Many customers will want a RIP that will work with a number of different output devices," he says. "When making an investment, buyers always need to ask about future developments and also the potential for any bespoke development work that might be necessary for any particular needs that a user might have."

And Xerox's Pieroux notes that the current market means there are some good deals out there. "Now is a good time to invest in workflow, as it can be a relatively cheap investment, but you can still improve the quality and productivity of your assets and staff," he says.

What's new in Pre-flighting, workflows & RIPs

• Screen unveiled a new workflow, PDF Polisher-Pro, which it claims  enhances both images and PDF files printed on its Truepress Jet2500UV. The workflow integrates Adobe PDF Print Engine (APPE) and Enfocus pre-flighting technology, in addition to Screen's Image Quality Management
• Agfa launched version 7 of its Apogee workflow suite, which now includes the latest version of the Adobe PDF Print Engine, APPE2 as well as a new pre-flighting module, Apogee Preflight
• Independent software provider StudioRIP signed a European distribution agreement with Italian screen printing specialist Grafco for a new version of its recently released StudioRIP 3.0 Xerio RIP, designed for screen printing
• In March, Xerox launched the latest version of its Xerox FleeFlow Web software. Version 7 allows for submission, preparation and templating