#Print Checklist

Sending a job to print can be a nerve-wracking experience. There are so many things that need to be thought of before, and after, you make up your PDF or package your InDesign document together to send off to the print-house. A good checklist could prove priceless.

A checklist of items you need to make sure of before you send a job out can be a lifesaver. The kind of things to look out for will vary from studio to studio, job to job, but with a good checklist you can often work around these things as you need to.

What follows is a checklist based on the one we use at the studio I work in. We're an in-house, so I've obviously made a few changes in relations to our branding and included things we don't normally worry about, but are worth thinking about in any other situation. This simple sheet of A4 paper with a couple dozen boxes has often saved us much pain after a job has been sent to print.

Downloads

You can grab a very, very simple Indd Document checklist that is made as ugly as possible as you can modify it for your own needs and to fit your own branding. There is also a PDF version available here.

List & Links

Administration
- Client Sign-Off (Email Included In Your Filing System With Job & Email Printed)
- Check Print Job Has Been Quoted And Quote On Hand
- Client Approval Of Quote On Hand
- Job Matches Print Quote Specifications
- Job Matches Specifications Given To Client
- Dummy Made
- Delivery Method Organised
- Package Job
The Printed Page
- Size
- Registration Marks & Fold Marks
- InDesign Preflight
Links
- High-Res Images
- Final Version (Photo Manipulations) In Place
- All Files Are CMYK Or Grayscale
- All Files Are In Links Folder
- All Fonts Included
- No Files Need To Be Updated In InDesign
Colour & Miscellaneous
- Job Is In Correct Colour Mode (CMYK, Spot)
- Specialty Inks Are In A Spot Colour And Clearly Marked (See Job Ticket And Quote)
- Black Body Text Is Over Printing
- Ink Limit (For Lighter Stocks And Newsprint)
- At Least 3mm Bleed On All Edges, On All Pages
- Spell Check
PDF
- Generate PDF Using PDF Presets From Print House Or Your Own
- Check PDF, Page By Page
- PDF Includes Crop Marks, Bleed And Fold Marks
- Spot Colours Intact
- PDF Has File Name Included In Slug
- Check Font Tab
Finalisation
- File Structure
- Backup
- DVD/CD Burnt And Verified
- Job Ticket Filled Out and Attached To Mockup/CD/DVD
- File Transferred To Printer (CD/DVD, FTP)
- Printer Emailed With Notification
- Mock-Up Sent To Printer
- Files Organised & Filed (Digital And Printed)

Administration

Client Sign-Off
(Email Included In Your Filing System With Job & Email Printed)
This sign off is your key to sending the job to a printer. If the client gave you approval via phone, make sure they send you an email or sign and date a proof. Having a verbal approval is worthless when, in a week, you get a phone call wanting to know why you didn't make this change or that change. Having it in writing insures you if this kind of argument comes up and is your safety should legal action be taken (although this is probably never going to happen, but it's better to be safe).

Check Print Job Has Been Quoted and Quote Is On Hand
This should have been done long ago, but make sure the job was quoted and that you have the quote in front of you so you can make sure it's with your paperwork for what's about to go to print.

Client Approval of Quote On Hand
That quote is nothing but a piece of paper or a few pixels if the client hasn't approved it. It's their money, so you need to know without a doubt that they are happy to spend it. Depending on your situation, you might have included this in your quote of the job. Obviously if you bundle the printed costs in your initial quote and they know nothing of it, then make sure you approved the quote.

Job Matches Print Quote Specifications
There is nothing worse in the world than sending a 24pp job to a printer when they were expecting 16pp. Make sure your print quote is right and that you're able to tick all of the below boxes.

Job Matches Specifications Given to Client
Ok, I lied, this is worse than sending the printer the wrong job. The printer isn't paying you so isn't going to care as much as a client who didn't get what they were offered. While this is often naturally handled during the proofing process, having it here makes sure everything has lined up properly (your quote to the client, the client's expectations, the printer's quote). You don't want to explain to your client why their full-colour job was printed in two spots.

Dummy Made
No matter the job, always make up a dummy for your client, your self and your printer. Again, the first two will some-what naturally work themselves out during the proofing process, but sending a mock-up with your job to the printer means they know what they're aiming for in folding, cutting and sizing. While all that might be on the quote, you will occasionally have a pressman or someone in the bindery do something wrong. Having that mock-up means you can tell your printer they had no excuse if they argue the point.

Delivery Method Organised
PDF via FTP? InDesign package compressed on a DVD? Both on a USB stick? Organising this early on with your printer (maybe when you get the quote organised?) then marking it down on your job sheet (you have one, right?) means that when your job is finished, you know exactly how to get it to them. FTP is easiest, but ignorance can be claimed should things go wrong. Where as dropping off a DVD or USB drive in person, or having them sent via registered post, means you know for a fact that they have your files in one piece.

Package Job
Whether you are giving your printer a PDF or an InDesign package, for your own sanity package the job up once you're finished. It means when it comes to filing and opening the job up in two years, when the client comes back to you for doing such a fantastic job the last time, you can easily access all the files that went along with it. A stray photo or EPS can be a nightmare to track down.

The Printed Page

Size
This is where the print quote really comes in handy – the nitty-gritty details. Is the document the correct size? Being 10mm over in height can mean losing your page numbers.

Registration Marks & Fold Marks
As you have probably noticed, a lot of the items on this list are about making it as easy as possible for the job to be handled by the people running the machines. Having fold marks on your job means a few things – firstly, the person running the folding machine doesn't have to look at their paperwork to see where it needs to be folded, it means that if a margin was given to them wrong by those in prepress or the account manager, they'll notice and can alert someone to it before you end up with 10,000 copies of the job folded improperly and, as I've said a few times, it's insurance for you.

InDesign Preflight
I love InDesign for this feature. Now with it's live preflighting, this might be less of a necessity. But you know what? Just for giggles, run through preflight and make sure everything is hunky-dory.

Links

High-Res Images
Easiest to check when preflighting, make sure all your images are at least 300DPI. Anything that is under it, go through and relink to your high-res versions (if you were using a low-res version for placement) or see if you can get away with it. A quick tip – zoom in to 300%. If you're image isn't overly jaggy you can probably get away with it. Anything about 250 is normally okish.

Final Version (Photo Manipulations) In Place
Remember how you got rid of all the zits on the photo of the CEO? Or how you brightened up that sunset? Don't have all that go to waste, make sure your images are the latest version of your file and not the original. A slight colour shift isn't hard to notice on screen and probably won't be noticed by your client, but when it comes back from press and that photo is a little too blue for your tastes, you'll kick yourself.

All Files Are CMYK or Grayscale
Another one of those things that Preflight is great for – quickly seeing if you have any images that aren't CMYK or grayscale. When you make your PDF, chances are the image will convert to CMYK anyway, but doing it yourself means your files are in order and are neater. It also means that you can control the colour conversion and make any alterations yourself, instead of leaving it up to chance and hoping that orange will be good enough (...it won't be).

All Files Are In Links Folder
This is almost never going to be an issue as this is mostly the point of having InDesign package the job for you, but a two minute check can make sure all your files are in the right place. Easiest way to do this if you have a huge amount of files is to double click an entry on your Links palette and clicking 'Next' like a madman, keeping a very keen eye on the file location. if 99 files are in the right place and one is out, you'll notice it because something will change in the file structure.

All Fonts Included
Mostly because this is one of those little checkboxes that can be easy to turn off by accident and because some fonts won't copy over (a licensing thing I think). An easy way to check that all the fonts were included is to open up your document and going to Type->Find Font and then referencing this list of fonts with the list of fonts in your Fonts folder.

No Files Need To Be Updated In InDesign
Another thing preflight will let you know about, but always worth the double check! Make sure all your links are up to date in the Links palette.

Colours & Miscellaneous

Job Is In Correct Colour Mode (CMYK, Spot)
It's hard to explain this option without giving you an essay of a reason. I won't go into the differences between CMYK, Spot and RGB. What I will mention, however, is that it is absolutely important to ensure that all your full-colour images are in CMYK mode right from the get-go (at least in your PDF proofs) so that you and your client know how the images will come out once they hit print.

It's also important to make sure your spot colours are actually spot colours and haven't been changed to CMYK. The easiest way to achieve this is to remove all unused colours from your Swatches fly-out menu and then have a look at your Separations preview. If you're going for a full colour job, all you'll want to see is CMYK. If you're going for a full colour job and a spot, all you'll want to see is CMYK and your one and only spot. If you're doing a two colour job and are using Black and a Spot, the best way to check is to turn off all your colours (make the drop down in your Separations palette 'Separations') and turn on all the inks you don't want to appear – in this case Cyan, Magenta and Yellow. Then go through, page by page, and make sure nothing is showing.

Specialty Inks Are In A Spot Colour And Clearly Marked (See Job Ticket And Quote)
Any time you use a specialty colour (a spot varnish for example), it's very important that you use a spot-colour to define where it will appear (this way the pre-press operator can output a separate plate for it) and you name your spot colour in the swatches panel what is going to be printed in its place. And make it loud, so no-one can miss it – "VARNISH". It is also worth making a big note of this on your proof that you'll drop off to the printers when you give them your job, mention it in any finalisation communications (email is best so you have a record), on your job ticket as well as ensuring it's on the quote.

It might seem over the top to be so pedantic about it, but the problem with specialty inks is that it isn't until you have the final product in your hands that you know if it's been done properly or not. Having many, many mentions of your spot colours means you can turn around to your printer and have them rerun (politely, of course) the job. If you've been quoted a job with a specialty ink, then you are paying extra, and the accounts department aren't going to know that someone in the press-room go it wrong, so you'll be charged for something you didn't actually get.

There are absolutely going to be times in your life when the printer just wanted to get the job through quickly and someone overlooked something. You'll end up with a job that is printed with your specialty-ink spot colour printed as a plain spot colour (the colour you mentioned). Having everything on paper means you aren't going to get the run-around..

Black Body Text Is Over Printing
Over printing your text means that if you have a colour background, the text is printed on top of your background colour or image. If it isn't set to overprint—which, by default, the black swatch always is—then whatever is behind your text is knocked out and you have your black text printed straight onto the paper – the background is removed to make room for your text. This might sound like something worth doing as it means your black will be black and won't be affected by any other colours underneath it. However, if you print text with overprint turned off, you may end up with a halo around your text.

A halo occurs when the registration of the printing-plates is slightly off (which they always are to some minute extent), meaning that while the other colours aren't printed in the spot where your body copy is to go, your black text is shifted in one direction or another by a fraction of a point – resulting in a mismatched print, making your text harder to read and everything looking rather sloppy.

Ink Limit (For Lighter Stocks And Newsprint)
This one is extremely important if working with newsprint stock. If you are working with a thin stock, then too much ink will result in the paper being too wet, sticking to other sheets (your printer, if they didn't check your file as might happen from time to time, will hate you for it), and smudging your artwork. Because of this, you need to find out what you're ink limit is and making sure nothing goes above it.

I'll surmise this one quickly, but once you've done it a few times, it'll become second nature.

The biggest issue is often full-colour photos, as they use four plates. As a rule of thumb, whenever I work with newsprint I try to have everything at no more than 230% ink coverage. This means that your four plates won't add up to a value of more than 230%. The quickest way to check this one is to have a look at your separations palette in InDesign and choosing Ink Limit from the drop down and making sure that your value is set to 230%. Now have a look at your artwork. You'll notice that your artwork has gone grayscale and that there are specks of fluorescence. These fluro green spots are the sections of your image that are using more than 230% worth of ink.

Luckily, this is a very easy thing to fix about 85% of the time. Load your image up in Photoshop, go to Edit -> Convert to Profile. Click Custom CMYK from the Profile drop down menu. For Ink Colors, select SWOP (Newsprint) then in Total Ink Limit down the bottom, punch in 230. Then hit OK, then OK again and you're back at your image. Save your file and recheck it in InDesign. If you still have some spots of green highlight, go into your Channels and tone down plates using the sponge tool one by one. Just think about what colour you could pull out without effecting your image too drastically and scale that one back. Easy as pie!

At Least 3mm Bleed On All Edges, On All Pages.
No matter how nice a person your printer is, their guillotine operators aren't magicians. Paper will always shuffle and move when the blade runs through it. It will often only be by less than 1mm or 2mm, but you'll sure as heck notice it when you have a slight 1mm border on one side of your final product. This means making sure you have at least 3mm bleed on your job. An easy one to set up – go to your Document Setup under File and setting your bleed to 3mm-5mm. If you don't see an option to do this, click on the "More Options" button under "Cancel" on the right.

Spell Check
It doesn't matter that your client has checked this job, that the proofreader has checked it and that you've run a spell check on your 500 page document every time you've sent a proof out. Spell check it again and pick out sections at random to read. It's amazing how many things you pick up by chance.

PDF

Generate PDF Using Presets From Print House.
Who knows what their people like, what the press-man wants and what the RIP will accept better than the printer who deals with all of them every day? Give your printer a call and ask them for a PDF preset so that you can be sure the PDF you output is exactly what they're after. It can be settings like color bars being enabled, how they like the crop marks set or if they prefer to have spreads turned on or off. Anything that can make things easier for your printer will make things easier for you

Check PDF, Page By Page
Now that you've made your printer-perfect PDF, it's time to go through it page by page. You need to make sure that everything is where it should be, that your transparency effects have worked the way they have and that everything looks right.

PDF Includes Crop Marks, Bleed And Fold Marks
While your PDF preset should be taking care of this, it's always a good idea to double check that your crop marks are in place, that all your images and illustrations have proper bleed and that your fold marks are in the right place.

Spot Colours Intact
Go to Advanced->Print Production->Output Preview and make sure that your spot colour(s) is still around and that it wasn't converted to CMYK.

PDF Has File Name Included In Slug
While it might not have been part of your printers requirements, it's always a good idea to have the filename on your PDF. You can find the option in your PDF export settings under Marks and Bleed then checking the Page Information checkbox.

Check Font Tab
If you're sending an ad to a newspaper or magazine, it's generally safest to not include your fonts in the PDF. Make sure they're outlined and double check that nothing is under your Fonts tab. Alternatively, if you do want to include your fonts (which most of the time, you will want to) make sure they all appear here and you haven't got any odd strays popping up.

Finalisation

File Structure
Make sure all your fonts are in the Fonts folder and your links in the Links folder of your InDesign package. From time to time, a file won't be included when you package the document, so it's always good to have a quick look to see if everything is in order.

Backup
Send it to your back-up hard drive, burn it to a DVD or upload it to an FTP somewhere. Make sure you have at least one backup somewhere, and it is always a good idea to have an off-site backup in case of fire, earthquake or pixies.

DVD/CD Burnt and Verified
No point in making sure they have your files by using a physical media if you don't verify the disc burnt properly. Make sure you setup your burning software to verify the data and go through and look at it yourself, just to be safe.

Job Ticket Filled Out and Attached To Mockup/CD/DVD
A job ticket can be a piece of paper twice the size of your business card that you use to lay claim to your mockup and DVD. It's another one of those things that works as a safety net for you. While your printer and the people they employ are probably very smart people who know how to handle anything you give them and have a system in place to make sure your work is yours, whose to say the work experience kid isn't going to stuff things up?

A job ticket should contain all the details that a pre-press person might need to know quickly and easily. Your name, the quote number/ID given to you by them, a name/description of the job, the date you dropped the file off, what you gave them (PDF on CD), your contact details (might be a good idea to just include business card), how many copies you're expecting, how many colours the job is and so forth. These people are your friends, treat them like it and don't make them wonder what you're asking of them.

File Transferred To Printer (CD/DVD, FTP)
Burn the disc or upload it to the printer's FTP. If they haven't got it, they can't print it, now can they? It's worth having this as something you need to tick off as if you get distracted near the end of your checklist, you won't know if you've sent the job off or not. It happens, really.

Printer Emailed With Notification
Whatever you've done, whether you're sending them a disc or uploading via FTP, make sure you send them an email letting them know. Again, this is a safety net.

Mock-Up Sent To Printer
Whether you are going to drop it off yourself (along with the CD or DVD?), or sending it via a courier or in the mail, it is always a good idea to send along a mockup so that the printer, the people in the bindery and whomever else needs to know, can see how you expect your job to turn out.

Files Organised & Filed (Digital And Printed)
Yup, paperwork. Get to it. Make sure all your emails, quotes, proofs and whatever material that may come in handy is filed together and then the job filed away in your filing system (physical). Also make sure that your file structure has been cleaned up (moved from a Working folder to a Finished folder for example) and the job is closed off.

Printers Are People Too

As you can see, most of these things are safety nets – they make sure you're protected if something goes wrong and helps you make sure that there is nothing to go wrong in the first place. A good number of them are things that'll end up being second nature, and I'm willing to bet a lot of them already are for you. But from time to time, an image slips through that you forget to make CMYK or you forget to set the ink limit. This is a list of the obvious stuff for when you're under pressure and just need a gentle reminder. Eight times out of ten, you'll tick off most of this stuff in less than 5 minutes.

It might not be the option for everyone, but one of the best parts of this kind of checking system is having a second person, preferably someone who isn't familiar with the job, to run their eyes over it and make sure all the Is are dotted and the Ts crossed. You will find your self taking things for granted and making assumptions about a job because of the amount of time you've spent with it, someone looking over your shoulders can be a lifesaver.

Let me know in the comments if you can think of anything I've missed or anything that seems off about the list in general. Why shouldn't we all get in on the act and make this as solid as possible?