Preflight: Will Your File Fly

Finally, says Cullins, “If not created correctly by the designer, many of the special effects (blends and transparency options) used in packaging may require manual work at the production stage.”

Flexo versus offset

While you would identify errors in a flexo file in just the same way as you would identify them in an offset file, there are also different output standards when it comes to preflighting for flexo and offset. Says Harrell, “Typically there are more parameters or rules on a flexo file. For instance, if I had a limitation to text size in offset, it would certainly be lower than flexo. In flexo, CMYK copy lower than 10-point type would be considered unreadable. Even if there are limitations in offset, it’s much less severe. In flexo, you typically accept more spot colors than in offset. And, because of limitations in flexo plates, there is a restriction to the minimum line weight. That’s not a problem in offset.”