Check a design for print with preflight
Preflight checks a design for print problems before it goes to a printer: soft images, thin rules, tiny type, overset text, the trimmed edge and spot inks.
Preflight checks a design for the problems that only show once it is printed: a photo that prints soft, a rule too thin for the press, type too small to read, text that does not fit, or something so close to the edge that the cut may catch it. Run it before you send a design to a print shop.
Every check is measured from the design on your computer. No AI is involved, so preflight needs no key and no credits, and it cannot invent a problem.
Before you start
- Preflight is on every plan.
- Open a design in PlexiiDesign, or click inside a Design work widget on a desk. See PlexiiDesign overview.
See the verdict at a glance
Open the Tools menu. Under Preflight for print… it shows where the design stands, such as Ready to print or 2 errors, 1 warning. It is worked out again whenever the design changes, so you can check it without opening anything.
Ready to print means there are no errors and no warnings. Notes under For information can still be listed.
Open the preflight panel
- Choose Tools > Preflight for print…. The Preflight for print panel opens above the page.
- Read the findings. They are grouped under Must fix, Worth fixing and For information. Each line names the problem and says what to do about it. A line about one element also gives its page, such as Page 2; the notes about the whole document under For information have no page.
- Click a line that names a page. PlexiiDesign goes to that page and selects the element the line is about, so you can fix it there and then.
The panel updates as you change the design, so a line goes away once its problem is fixed.
When there is nothing to fix, the panel says so in words: Nothing to fix. Every image is sharp enough for print, no rule is thinner than a hairline, no type is too small to read, and nothing live sits outside the trim.
What preflight checks
| What it checks | Listed under | What the line says |
|---|---|---|
| A picture below 150 PPI at the size it is placed | Must fix | The measured resolution, such as Image is 120 PPI at this size |
| A picture from 150 up to 300 PPI | Worth fixing | The same, with a note that print usually wants 300 PPI |
| An image frame with no picture in it | Must fix | An image frame has no image |
| Story text that does not fit its frames | Must fix | Text does not fit and will not print |
| A rule thinner than a hairline (0.25pt) | Worth fixing | Rule is thinner than 0.25pt |
| Type under 5pt | Worth fixing | The measured size, such as Text is about 4.5pt |
| Anything within an eighth of an inch of the trimmed edge | Worth fixing | This sits close to the trimmed edge |
| Bleed is set but the page has no background | For information | Bleed is set but the page has no background |
| Spot inks the design uses | For information | How many, and their names, such as 1 spot ink: Pantone 286 C |
| A picture whose pixel size was not recorded | For information | Image resolution is unknown |
A few of these in more detail:
- Resolution is the picture's own pixels spread over the size it is drawn on the page. Making a picture bigger on the page lowers it. To fix a soft picture, use a larger original or make the picture smaller.
- The trimmed edge. Cutting a printed sheet can wander by a millimetre or two, so anything this close to the edge may be cut into. With bleed set in Export > Bleed (px), an element that runs off the edge of the page is taken as meant to bleed and is not listed.
- Text that does not fit is the end of a story with nowhere left to go. Make the frames bigger, link another frame, or shorten the text. See Thread text through frames.
What preflight does not check
The panel says this itself, at the bottom: Not checked here: colour separations, total ink coverage and font embedding. This document is RGB and carries no colour profiles, so those belong to whoever makes the plates. Ask your printer for a proof.
PlexiiDesign keeps colours as screen colours, with no colour profiles, so it has nothing to measure separations or ink coverage against, and font embedding is decided when a file is exported, not by the design. Your printer checks these when they prepare the job. For anything you are printing in quantity, ask them for a proof first.
Spot inks
Each spot ink is printed from its own plate and is priced as one, so preflight lists the spot inks in use by the names your printer will be told, such as Pantone 286 C.
An ink is listed only once something in the design uses it. A swatch marked as a spot ink that nothing uses is not listed, because it does not need a plate. If a job does not need an exact colour match, untick Spot ink on the swatch and it prints like any other colour. See Swatches and spot inks.
Common questions
The menu says Ready to print, but the panel still lists something. Ready to print means no errors and no warnings. Lines under For information, such as the spot inks in use, are there for you to know about, not to fix.
Does preflight use AI or credits? No. It is arithmetic on the design, done on your computer.
How is this different from Live review? Live review, in the PlexiiAssist panel, asks whether a layout reads well: contrast, line length, hierarchy. Preflight asks whether it will print correctly. See Review a design with PlexiiAssist.
A picture says Image resolution is unknown. The picture did not record its pixel size when it was placed, so its print resolution cannot be measured. Place it again with Image, or check the original at full size before a print run.
Does preflight check the colours my printer will get? No. See What preflight does not check.
Related tasks
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