Specifications

7. Preflighting and Checking PDF Documents
Enfocus PitStop Server lets you conveniently check and fine tune your PDF documents before you
output them, either on screen or in printed form. You can ensure the properties of your PDF
documents to match the properties as specified in the selected Preflight Profile. The result of
these preflight actions is presented in a preflight report, stored in a log folder.
7.1 What is preflighting?
Preflighting defined
Preflighting is a term derived from the airline industry. The pilot has the responsibility to determine
the airworthiness of the aircraft before take-off. This means that he or she has to perform a number
of checks prior to each flight.
Preflighting PDF documents basically means the same thing: the “pilot in command”, i.e. the
person who creates or processes a PDF document, has to make sure that the document is
“airworthy”, or rather, “outputworthy”, before sending it for output.
“Outputworthy” means that the PDF document is “fit for use”, for example:
• That a PDF document to be printed on a four-color printing press contains only CMYK images
and that all the necessary fonts are included
• That a PDF document intended for online viewing contains only RGB images
Moreover, any property of a PDF document which does not meet the requirements of the preflight
check can be reported as a “problem” and fixed in the same process.
Preflight Profiles
To preflight PDF documents, you use Preflight Profiles. A Preflight Profile is a collection of criteria
which a PDF document should meet to be outputworthy. For each criterion, you can specify:
• If it should be checked or not
• How it should be listed in the preflight report, i.e. “Warning” or “Error”
• How the problem, if any, should be fixed
An example of a criterion is RGB colors. If you do not want RGB colors in your PDF documents,
you can check this and have all RGB colors converted to CMYK.
Preflighting mechanism
How exactly does preflighting work in Enfocus PitStop Server? The typical stages in a preflight
check are the following:
1. Create, edit or import a Preflight Profile via the Action List And Preflight Profile Panel. You
can import Preflight Profiles in your Hot Folder "From database" or "From File".
2. Place PDF documents in the input folder to have them checked and fixed automatically.
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Enfocus PitStop Server