FlightCheck is a stand-alone application that performs preflight quality control inspection on many common file types such as Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, QuarkXPress, and PDF.[1]

FlightCheck
Developer(s)Markzware Inc.
Initial release1995; 29 years ago (1995)
Stable release
2023 / December 2022; 1 year ago (2022-12)
Written inC++, Swift (programming language)
Operating systemmacOS 10.13 and later
Platformx86-64, ARM64
TypePreflight for Desktop Publishing
LicenseTrialware, Proprietary license
Websitemarkzware.com/products/flightcheck/

Preflight in the graphic arts industry is the process of checking a digital document before it goes to the plate, print, or otherwise output (exported - such as to PDF). It is a way to check the quality before printing, digitally or otherwise, but it can also be used to check any common artwork file. Preflight may be done on the source desktop publishing document, or before creating a Portable Document Format (PDF) file. The term preflight was first used during a presentation in 1990 by Chuck Weger, a well-known industry consultant. There were some early postscript RIPs that interpreted data and provided a preflight report of sorts.

The first commercial preflight application, called "FlightCheck,"[2] was introduced to the public by Markzware and appeared at the Seybold Seminars Conference at San Francisco in the Fall of 1995.[3] U.S. Patent, number 5,963,641 [4] was subsequently granted - ‘Device and method for examining, verifying, correcting and approving electronic documents prior to printing, transmission or recording.’

Other preflighting tools have subsequently been introduced,[5] mainly focusing on PDF [6] preflighting.

References edit

  1. ^ "FlightCheck Professional v6.10 - PrintWeek 2008". Archived from the original on 2008-06-14. Retrieved 2008-05-23.
  2. ^ "Error". 8 April 2014.
  3. ^ Pro File: Taking Flight - Macworld 2002[permanent dead link]
  4. ^ US Granted 5963641, Crandall, Ronald & Marchese, Patrick Gerald, "Device, and method for examining, verifying, correcting, and approving electronic documents prior to printing, transmission, or recording", published 1999-10-05, assigned to Markzware, Inc. 
  5. ^ "PreFlight and PrePress Software - desktoppublishing.com". Archived from the original on 2008-05-09. Retrieved 2008-05-23.
  6. ^ PDF