How to Create a Custom Preflight in InDesign

How can you catch mistakes so that nothing gets missed and by mistake goes to print causing anger and frustration for both yourself and your client?

There are two schools of thought on the matter:

1. Automate it and let InDesign check for you

2. Check manually yourself (or ask someone else to, for a fresh pair of eyes)

For those in the automate club, here’s how you set up a custom Print Preflight in InDesign that will check for everything you ask it to.

For those who don’t trust technology, check out the footer of this page for a FREE PrePrint Checklist 😊

1. Open the window

Window > Output > Preflight > Define Profile > +

2. Adjust the settings to your preferences

Links > Links missing or modified, Inaccessible URL links

Images > Minimum resolution of 200-250 (depending on how likely your client is to send you a low res photo they want to print anyway), Minimum stroke weight of .125, Bleed/Trim hazard of .0625in

Text > overset text, font missing, dynamic spelling, non-proportional type scaling, minimum type size of 4pt

3. Run your preflight and fix any errors that come up

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Additional Reading:

Adobe: Preflight files before handoff

SkillForge: How to Create a Preflight Profile for Adobe InDesign