My print vendor ran the job and some characters were dropped from the embedded images (strange yes). They blame me for not supplying the embedded images, stating “they never had a designer not supply all limages.” Upon discussion, I found that the preflight “expert” never preflighted the job to the extent I would have expected. He did not know the images were embedded…an important fact we at my previous shop would have noted, paid attention to, and requested the source files for if needed. Additionally, I argue that even if I supplied all images, relying on the InDesign message regarding linked/missing images upon opening the file would not have alerted him to embedded images and he would still have run the job with the same result.

My suggestions to designers: learn prepress/preflight and don’t rely on your vendor to do it.

Well — you can attack it with technology, skills and process depending on which is the most practical alternative given the staff in question.

Technology — Markzware has a new product now that actually preflights as you build your project or preflight could be automated at the server level at the end of the content creation workflow.

Skills — here’s an excellent example of skill standards put to use — if everyone had a strong composition skill set, then preflighting would
be a minimal step in the process.

Process — planning up front for the project will eliminate much of the hassle on the back end with something akin to a job ticket outlining the
parameters of the job.