Read the preflight

The preflight checks the job before it can go to a press. Studio's promise is that a job goes from your screen to the press without anybody checking it on the way, so the checking happens here and cannot be skipped by being in a hurry.

Stop and look

Every finding is one of two kinds.

• A stop: the press cannot make this, or would make it differently from the preview. It holds the job. There is no way to click past a stop.
• A look: it can be made, and somebody should know before it is. It is a call left to you.

A warning that blocks is a warning people learn to click past, and a block that is only a warning is a job on the floor. So anything that would waste material, jam a cutter or come out as something other than the preview is a stop. Anything that is a judgement call is a look.

Where to read it

Open the Preflight tab at the top of the panel on the right. It opens first, because the first question about a job is whether it can go. Its badge stays visible from every other tab. The same count is the red number on Put on a press… at the top, and the line at the foot, such as 1 thing preventing printing. Press Put on a press… while something stops the job and nothing is put: it takes you to the list.

Each finding says what is wrong in words you can act on and what to do. Under it is What is this?, which opens the Feature library at the entry that explains it.

What it checks

Among the stops: a missing Quick Set, a sheet wider than the roll or over the stock's maximum, a kiss-cut asked of film with no liner, a design under the cutter's minimum, a piece that will not fit the sheet at all, a gap below what the blade can separate, and pieces over the grip margin or in a registration mark's clear band.

Among the looks: a picture under 150 DPI at its printed size, a narrow neck that will tear when weeded, a sheet carrying so little artwork that it is mostly waste, only part of the roll used, and artwork that changed under a cut line you kept.

Fix these issues

Over the list is Fix these issues. Pressing it changes nothing at first. It shows each fix ticked, with what it would change in your unit, for example Big goes from 30″ × 20″ to 24″ × 18″, and every finding it leaves alone, with why and what to do.

Only Make the fixes changes the sheet. It is one change, so one Undo takes them all back. Then the preflight is read again, and says how many cleared, how many are left, and whether a stop still holds the job.

A fix is only ever the one its finding's own button makes. A finding with no fix is a choice only you can make, so Studio never guesses. For example, opening the gap to the least the stock and the cutter allow is a fix, and an un-flip of a flipped design is offered but left unticked, because the flip may be meant.

Why a stop holds

If a stop could be clicked past, the job would reach the press with the problem still in it. If you disagree with a stop, change the job or the stock's settings. A stop is not a message to dismiss.