Kopco, Inc. - Preflight

For the preflighting of PDF files we recommend using Enfocus Pitstop Professional. This is a very useful tool that can show you the potential problems that your files contain before sending them for output.

PitStop Professional is the industry standard for PDF preflight, auto-correction and editing. It’s the Adobe® Acrobat® plug-in that is indispensable to every graphic arts and publishing professional. Enfocus PDF Profiles allow you to check critical PDF attributes and automatically correct common errors. Powerful Certified PDF® technology enables immediate visual feedback and allows you to track every edit made to a PDF.

PitStop Professional features comprehensive interactive inspection and editing tools that allow you to change text, images, line-art, colors and a wide range of other PDF attributes. Global Change functionality enables universal changes throughout a page or an entire document and Action Lists can be used to automate repetitive tasks.

The preflighting capabilities in PitStop Professional are beyond compare with the integration of the PDF Profile and Certified PDF technologies. Enfocus PDF Profiles allow you to check all critical issues and automatically correct over 100 of the most common errors encountered in your PDF files. Enfocus’ Certified PDF technology embeds the PDF Profile and preflight report in the file, displaying immediate visual feedback that reveals whether or not the file complies with your selected PDF quality specifications. A Certified PDF file tracks all edits and allows for version comparison and roll back.

As an added step we have provided custom built profiles that can be loaded into Pitstop and used to show the specific things we are looking out for in our workflow. These profiles are available for download here:

There are many aspects to keep in mind when designing a job to send to Kopco for printing. Whether you are new to design or have been at it for many years, the specifications for file submission can vary greatly from company to company. Please take the time to found out what we are looking for, it will help us give you a better product. The basic file submission information can be found in the table below. In addition to the basic information, we have created custom job options files that can be loaded into Acrobat Distiller or InDesign CS and used to create PDFs based on our guidelines. These files are available below. For help on installing any custom preset please feel free to contact us.

Basic File Submission Guidelines

The layout can be created in any program as long as the ability to output to PDF is available. Just make sure that the layout is being created to the finished trim size of the publication and that adequate (at least 0.25”) bleed area is given on each page that requires it. Any spot colors used need to conform to the Pantone color library to ensure correct color matching. In addition, black text that is smaller then 14 points needs to be composed of a pure color mixture of 100% black and not “enriched black” (which uses all four colors to create black). “Four color black” such as this is hard to keep in registration when the publication is on press.

All images should be saved in CMYK color mode and should have a resolution of at least 300 dpi. We recommend that the image should also be saved as either a 1 bit Tiff image file or as an EPS file. You can save to the JPEG image format using the maximum (or highest) quality settings but sometimes using the maximum quality setting (even though best for the highest quality of image output) can raise file sizes of the final PDF dramatically. In addition, failure to convert the image or artwork to the CMYK format can cause unwanted color shifts when our workflow forces a conversion from another color space such as RGB.

When ready to make PDF’s, please make sure that all fonts are activated and available to be embedded. Double check the settings of the PDF making application and ensure that everything is set for “Press Ready” specifications. Using other presets aside from press ready can cause a decrease in quality. Please refer to the section below to download our pre-made settings.

For more details on the file creation process or for articles regarding the benefits of PDF usage,
please contact us or contain to visit the links provided on our site.

* Note: For Acrobat Distiller, the preset file must be placed inside the "settings" folder in the program file location of the program.
For more detailed information on how to do this please contact us.*

If you are using a program that is not listed here please contact us for more information on preflight and preset specifics.

Equipment Overview	File Transfer Protocol (FTP)	Preflight	Tools	On-Line Proofing