What is preflight in printing?
Preflight is the automated check a printer or designer runs on a print file before printing, looking for problems such as missing fonts, low-resolution images, RGB color and missing bleed.
What it means for your file
Printers preflight every file they receive, which is where most rejection emails come from. Acrobat Pro and InDesign have preflight built in, and our free print-ready checker runs the most common checks in your browser.
An example
In Acrobat Pro, All tools → Use print production → Preflight (Tools → Print Production in older versions) runs a profile, such as one that verifies PDF/X-4 compliance or one your printer supplies, and lists every problem with the page it’s on. InDesign preflights as you work: the dot at the bottom of the window turns red when there’s an error, such as a missing link or overset text.
A common mistake
Taking a clean preflight as a pass when the profile doesn’t check what the printer checks. Preflight only looks for what its profile asks: InDesign’s basic profile looks for missing fonts, missing links and overset text, but not image resolution, color or bleed unless you add them.
How to fix it
If your printer sent the file back saying “Please send a print-ready PDF,” the fix page has the step-by-step way to do it yourself, and a fixed price if you’d rather have it done.
Where else it comes up
All print terms in the glossary, or run your file through the free print-ready checker.
Free download
The print-ready file checklist
The seven checks every file goes through before it leaves us. Useful whether or not you ever send us a job.
Your print-ready checklist.
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Not sure what your file needs?
Ask a question or send the file in the chat. A designer usually answers within minutes with a fixed price, and nothing starts until you say yes.