Hello All,

I have tried out Freeflight with a few photoshop files.
Three of these file were Tiff files.

– One was: 300DPI CMYK
– One was: 72DPI CMYK
– One was: 300DPI RGB

The freeflight report marked all of these as 'GOOD'.
Now shouldn't have freeflght only marked the 300DPI CMYK file as 'GOOD'?

Are there settings somewhere in Freeflight to govern this?
Or Am I missing something?

Regards
Ben
Sydney, Australia
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Hello,

FreeFlight is on a first release. It is a "supplement" to the preflight in both Quark Xpress and Adobe InDesign CS2 and the FreeFlight Xtension and Plug-In that I use for those programs. With both of those apps they cannot report on embedded RGB. Like an RGB tiff in a PDF, then that PDF placed in Adobe InDesign CS. FreeFlight will see that RGB, Adobe InDesign's built in preflight will not, reporting it as OK.

So, Colorspace of images and Embedded Images, Missing Images linked but not Embedded, File Format, Embedded and Linked Fonts: are the first things that FreeFlight, the application, is checking for at this time. Resolution is a more complicated issue and for this tool somewhat irrelevant, i will explain that image resolution later. In your test:

– Image 1 was: 300DPI CMYK
– Image 2 was: 72DPI CMYK
– Image 3 was: 300DPI RGB

Colorspace, Image 3 should have reported "BAD COLOR" not "GOOD" This by the current app is a false positive. I would like to get a copy of that file for testing and troubleshooting. If this result is repeatable, you may have found a problem and sending me that file would help me get that fixed in next release. Currently I only have one rare file example of tiff colorspace problem. I welcome any files that do not test right as I will use them to improve the application. I also welcome these questions to help explain what FreeFlight does and doesn't do.

With regard to FreeFlight and resolution. The reason that FreeFlight the stand alone preflight software does not verify resolution is this. All 4 of these resolutions make NO DIFFERENCE without the scale of the layout application included in that verification.

Example, you state that the Image 1, at 300 DPI and CMYK should be GOOD for resolution. Well, what if I take it and blow it up to 350% in Adobe InDesign on the cover of a magazine? Resolution to be verified in a good preflight has to consider scale in the layout AND the image resolution to determine if it is suitable.

Example, the resolution of image 2 is only 72 DPI. So, you would expect BAD RESOLUTION right? Well, not if I use it in a 20% scale on a layout in Quark Xpress. This now makes the final output resolution 360 DPI, plenty good for CTP quality printing.

An entire preflight cannot be accomplished by FreeFlight or any other software. It's a tool that gives verification on an important part of the preflight that's needed. The part of verifying resolution is a function of FreeFlight XT in Quark, or FreeFlight Plug-In in adobe InDesign. The Xtension and PlugIn do this in concert with info from FreeFlight the application, this compared the actual scale and the image resolution and size give a final go/no go on file resolution.

Thus FreeFlight the stand alone application is an external image verification module that delivers info on the image, but not all information required to truly verify resolution questions. The FreeFlight Xtension and FreeFlight Plug-In provide this final OK on resolution from the layout applications themselves. That is all part of the PDF-X-Robot workflow.

If you look at the documentation of the free tool it should not mention resolution as something that it provides. You do see the pixels of images in the dialog output and it feeds that info to the XT and PligIn to make a complete calculation.
_________________
JoePostscript -- support administrator

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Wind Turbine Buyer's Guide


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G'day,

I understand what you're saying about resolution.
A 300DPI file Is no good to me If some turkey blows it up to 500%.

Regards
Ben