Preflighting as you work
Anytime you start working on a document for the first time—whether you’re creating a document from scratch or revising an existing document—you will need to keep an eye on output issues. You will learn more about all of these issues throughout the -lessons in this book. Common issues include:
- Missing fonts: If a font used in the document is not present or enabled on your system, it is considered missing and the document will not print properly.
- Color models: Colors created in the wrong color model for the intended output device can cause problems. A common problem is that digital camera images often use the RGB color model while offset printing requires CMYK colors.
- Overset text: As text formatting changes and objects are moved and resized during layout, text can accidentally get cut off so it doesn’t display or print. This is referred to as overset text.
In publishing, the process of reviewing a document for output issues is known as preflighting. InDesign provides a Live Preflight feature that lets you monitor documents as you’re working to prevent potential problems from occurring. To customize Live Preflight, you can create or import production rules (called profiles) against which to check your documents. The default profile supplied with InDesign flags issues such as missing fonts and overset text (text that does not fit in its text frame). You will fix an overset text error in this exercise.
- Choose Window > Output > Preflight to open the Preflight panel.
- To view the error, click the arrow next to Text in the Preflight panel.
- Click the arrow next to Overset Text, and then click Text Frame.
- To display details for the error, click the arrow next to Info below.
- Double-click Text Frame to select the problem text frame on the page, or click the page number link to the right in the Page column.
- Using the Selection tool (
), drag the handle at the bottom of the text frame down until it touches the ruler guide. - Click the pasteboard to deselect the text frame.
- Choose View > Fit Page In Window.
- Close the Preflight panel. Choose File > Save to save your work.
Using the [Basic] (Working) preflight profile, InDesign finds one error, as indicated by the red Preflight icon (
), which displays in the lower-left corner of the Preflight panel and the document window. According to the Error list in the Preflight panel, the problem is Text.
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The text frame containing the red text that starts with “Cobblers, crumbles, crisps” is selected. The overset text is indicated by a red plus sign (+) in the frame’s out port (the small square just above the lower-right corner of the frame).
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TIP
Keep an eye on the lower-left corner of the document window to see if any errors arise. You can double-click the red Preflight icon () to open the Preflight panel for details on any errors.
InDesign now reports No Errors in the Preflight panel and the lower-left corner of the document window.
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