There are many reasons that you would want put your PDF files through their paces before committing them to print: errors in composition/copy, inaccurately stored color information, font/embedding problems... The list goes on. It all boils down to the fact that you need your PDF files to be foolproof and 100% portable before you send them away to be printed by someone who has not been a part of your design process and doesn't know firsthand how you want the final copy to look. Mistakes can be very costly and time-consuming to troubleshoot if they're not caught early. That's where PDF Preflight comes in.

"PDF Preflight" is the process of detecting and fixing potential issues that may impede smooth and error-free printing of PDF documents. Acrobat 6.0 Professional includes some nice preflight functionality, but this is not contained in Acrobat 6.0 Standard or in previous versions of Acrobat. PDF/X Checkup is an Acrobat plug-in that scans PDF files against the PDF/X printing standards and presents a report of its findings, while the Enfocus PitStop Professional plug-in allows for numerous preflight checks and fixes, along with the saving of repeatable action lists.

For those processing large volumes of documents destined for print, it may also be worth considering the use of Enfocus PitStop Server, which allows the use of hot folders to check files based on standard or custom profiles.

Next week, I'll address the basics of creating web-ready PDFs, so watch this space! Until then, please browse PDF Store's Prepress & Print aisle for the complete range of PDF Prepress and print-related tools.