The Print Info box will display some of the document’s print parameters based on the settings originally chosen in the application’s Page Setup dialog including the print resolution (in dots per inch), halftone screening (in lines per inch), the output quality, page sequence selection and whether or not separations, spreads, registration marks and tiling have been turned on or off.
If any of the Print Info items appear in red, then FLIGHTCHECK® has determined there is some sort of problem based on your Ground Controls settings, as explained later.
Resolution
The output resolution (displayed in dots per inch) will be obtained from the document’s print record. In some cases you may consider the resolution value to be a mere “recommendation” to the final output device, as it may not be determined if the device is capable of outputting at the requested resolution, but more importantly, the output resolution can often be manually changed at print time. Therefore, FLIGHTCHECK® will usually ignore the value and will post no error regarding the resolution (unless the value is unknown).
Halftone Screen
The halftone line screen will be displayed in lines per inch. This value is obtained from the document’s print record and can be overriden by the PDF or PPD. The halftone line screen is extremely important and is in fact a vital key used in FLIGHTCHECK®’s determination of possible output problems regarding images.
The line screen, also known as screen ruling or screen frequency, refers to the number of rows or lines of dots used to render an image on film or paper. The relationship between the output resolution (dpi) and the screen ruling (lpi) determines how fine or coarse a bitmap image appears on the printed output. The screen ruling to employ depends on the resolution of the imagesetter, the paper stock and the type of press used to print the publication. A newspaper, for example, is commonly printed using a low screen ruling of about 85 lpi because of paper stock’s high absorbency of ink and the high speed of the press. A higher screen ruling would saturate the newsprint with ink and make the images look muddy. On the other hand, a four-color magazine printed on coated paper might use a screen ruling of 133 lpi. A lower screen ruling would make images coarse and less detailed.
When examining the images used within the document, FLIGHTCHECK® will compare the resolution of each image to the halftone line screen value in order to determine if the image can be acceptably printed or not. Because the line screen in some cases could be adjusted manually or automatically by a RIP at print time, FLIGHTCHECK® offers a feature of allowing you to change the line screen value for checking purposes. This will be explained later in the “Ground Controls” section.
Output
The output resolution type chosen for the document will be displayed and this will be either Normal, Low Resolution or Rough. Sometimes there is a need to print a low quality or quick proof version of a document, and some applications even allow printing images as gray boxes in order to save time. In this case should you forget to change the Output setting back to Normal FLIGHTCHECK® can be used to inform you of this potential problem. This is accomplished through the Ground Controls settings, as explained later.
Page Sequence
The page sequence set for the document will be displayed and this will be All, Odd or Even. If you want to be alerted for certain types of page sequences you can select them on the Ground Controls.
Separation
The separation setting for printing the document, which will be either On or Off, will be displayed. If you want to be alerted for either type you may do so by setting the Ground Controls.
Spreads
The Yes or No status of whether or not the document has been set for printing spreads will be given. You can set the Ground Controls accordingly should you want to be alerted for either status.
Registration Marks
If print registration marks has been turned on for the document, the words “Centered” or “Off Center” will be displayed, followed by the offset value (if known), otherwise the word “Off” will be displayed. To be warned if a particular setting is undesirable you can set the appropriate Ground Controls. Keep in mind that if you’re printing registration marks, FLIGHTCHECK® will need to add the offset value to the page dimensions in order to correctly determine if the total area can be printed to the currently selected paper size.
Note: If you are checking a QuarkXPress document that has registration marks turned on, the actual offset value will be obtained from the “XPress Prefs” file located in the selected application’s source folder, provided of course the application can be found. Also, on a technical note, QuarkXPress does not update the offset value contained in this file until you quit, so if you change the live value while inside QuarkXPress you can return to FLIGHTCHECK® and simply click on the Reg.Marks section of the main window and FLIGHTCHECK® will attempt to ask (via an AppleScript) the active QuarkXPress for the current live value.
Tiling
If tiling has been selected for the document, the words “Automatic” or “Manual” will be displayed, otherwise the word “Off” will be displayed. To be warned if a particular type of tiling is selected, or if tiling is unwantedly turned on, you can set the desired preferences using the Ground Controls.
