Affinity Publisher's preflight check feature can be used to ensure that your document exports or prints as intended. The preflight check runs as a background process, and can be run on demand, prior to output, or 'live' on a continual basis.
The Preflight panel.
Preflight checks the contents of your file for errors, ensuring the file is ready for print or export.
Preflight notifications
With preflight enabled, the bell-shaped preflight indicator in the status bar will change when warnings or errors have been detected in the document. The colour of the indicator shows preflight's status:
Grey indicates that preflight has not been enabled.
Green indicates that preflight is active and no errors have been found.
Red indicates that preflight is active and errors that will interrupt export have been found.
Yellow indicates that preflight is active and issues that will not affect export have been found.
Hovering over the preflight indicator when it is red will reveal the number of errors preflight has found. Clicking on the indicator takes you directly to the Preflight panel.
Editing the Preflight profile
The Preflight panel uses a default set of checks, but these can be customised. The Preflight panel's Edit profile function allows you to tailor preflight checking to your needs. From the panel, you can control the severity level for preflight issues, set values and thresholds that trigger preflight warnings and errors, and control how embedded documents work with preflight.
Errors and warnings
The Preflight panel displays a full list of warnings and errors it has found, allowing you to pinpoint and correct certain errors where they appear in the file. The types of errors that are listed are determined by the way your preflight preset has been set up in the panel. Errors are colour coded to indicate their severity:
A yellow dot to the left of an entry is a warning of an issue in the file which will not affect export.
A red dot to the left of an entry indicates an error in the file which will interrupt export.
The full list of preflight warnings and errors is as follows:
Bleed Hazard—appears when an object is positioned outside of the bleed zone. You can adjust the safe zone edge via the panel, which will change what preflight checking will identify as a bleed hazard.
Check copy—appears if a preflight user comment has been attached to an object. Can be used as a reminder to, for example, check final text copy or to check image copyright.
Data merge sources need updating—appears when a data record(s) in the external data source has been edited. Click Fix to update to the latest records.
Field (field name) not found in source (data source file name)—appears when a row or column in the external data source has either been renamed or deleted.
Hidden Object
Hyperlink to Invalid Anchor (anchor name)—appears where a hyperlink's anchor is missing or has been deleted.
Hyperlink to Invalid Page—appears where a hyperlink's target page is missing or has been deleted.
Linked resource is missing/Linked resource is out of date
Mismatched colour space (RGB)
Missing characters (character)—appears when text uses a glyph that is not present in the currently applied font.
Missing Font—appears if the document is opened on a computer that does not have the used fonts available.
Non-Proportional Scaling—appears when an object is not proportionally scaled, e.g. when an image has been accidentally squashed.
One or more table of contents entries need updating—appears when the TOC is out of date because referenced text in the document has been added to, modified or deleted. Click Fix to update the TOC and resolve.
Overflowing path text—appears where there is overset text on a path.
Overflowing text frame—appears where there is overset text within a text frame.
PDF passthrough—a series of different preflight checks for PDF passthrough. These will report as:
Placed PDF has image adjustments applied. The PDF will be rasterised on export.
Placed PDF has effects applied. The PDF will be rasterised on export.
Placed PDF has transparency applied. The PDF will be rasterised on export.
Placed PDF Version (version) is not compatible with the PDF export version. The PDF will be rasterised on export.
Placed PDF has objects of a colour not compatible with the PDF export version. The PDF will be rasterised on export.
Placed PDF is missing or broken.
Placed PDF has unsupported page box. The PDF will be rasterised on export.
Placed PDF has objects of a colour different to the document colourspace. The PDF will still pass through.
Placed image DPI too low—appears when an image's DPI is too low for the file, with the image's DPI listed in brackets beside the error.
Spelling Mistake
Stroke too narrow (Stroke width)—appears when the stroke width is too narrow.
Text patterns—a series of different preflight checks for text patterns that are commonly found in edited or imported copy which may cause inconsistency. These will report as:
Multiple spaces.
Space after Tab/Space after break.
Consecutive breaks.
Straight quotes.
Ellipsis with full stops.
Double hyphen for dash.
The document index needs updating
Double clicking on an issue in the panel will take you to its location in the file. A Fix button beside certain issue types allows you to fix them immediately.
If enabled, preflight will be re-run on print and export. If there are errors (not warnings) in the file, a dialog offers the chance to abort the export and go to the Preflight panel to review the errors.
Preflight user comments
Preflight user comments can be added to objects in your publication, creating a custom check to be made prior to print or export. This has many uses, including the ability to:
Check specific layers are hidden or visible at export.
Check text and picture frames are populated.
Check text frames with placeholder text that may need replacing.
Check images that need copyright checking or creative approval.
Check images using temporary colours.
Check copy.
Ensure copy is approved.
When a user comment is added, it will be listed in the Preflight panel to be checked later.
To access the Preflight panel:
Do one of the following:
Click on the Preflight indicator in the status bar.
On the View menu, select Studio and then choose Preflight.
To create a preflight preset:
From the Preflight panel, click on the profile options menu and select Edit profile.
The Preflight Profile dialog will appear. From here, you can establish which issues you wish to check for in your file and how extensive you would like your checks to be.
After you have finished editing your profile close the dialog. The Profile will now display as Custom.
To save a preflight preset:
From the Preflight panel, click on the profile options menu and select Create preset.
Type in a name for your preset and click OK.
To change the bleed hazard safe zone edge:
From the Preflight panel, click on the profile options menu and select Edit profile.
The Preflight Profile dialog will appear. From here, select the Bleed Hazard tab.
Select one of the Safe Zone Edge options.
To enable preflight to check for issues:
From the Preflight panel, select one of the Check options:
Export will check the file for issues just prior to export.
Live will actively check the file for issues as you update it.
To disable error checking:
From the Preflight panel, go to the Check options and select Never.
To check for issues immediately:
From the Preflight panel, select Check now.
To view further information on an issue:
Hover over the issue in the Preflight panel.
To view an object marked with an issue in the file:
Double click on the issue in the Preflight panel.
To automatically fix an issue in the file:
Where applicable, click the Fix button in the Preflight panel.
To set preflight user comments:
-click on an object and select Preflight Comment>Set.
Enter a comment into the Preflight Comment text box, then select OK.
To clear preflight user comments:
-click on an object and select Preflight Comment>Clear.
Grey indicates that preflight has not been enabled.
Green indicates that preflight is active and no errors have been found.
Red indicates that preflight is active and errors that will interrupt export have been found.
Yellow indicates that preflight is active and issues that will not affect export have been found.
Edit profile function allows you to tailor preflight checking to your needs. From the panel, you can control the severity level for preflight issues, set values and thresholds that trigger preflight warnings and errors, and control how embedded documents work with preflight.