There’s a lot of prep work to be done before you can get your print job off the ground.

By Jean-Marie Hershey

Harrell agrees. “The designer should have the set of parameters to conform to. If the designer knows the rules, the file is built to the rules, and no file repair is needed. Esko’s DeskPack plug-in for Illustrator allows a converter to set printing parameters, create user names, and provide password protections to ensure the parameters are not tampered with. The designer loads the parameters and runs a utility to make sure the file conforms. The designer does his own preflighting, which saves time and money. You’re assured that clean files are sent to the converter. Prepress doesn’t have to redo anything.”