The Government Printing Office is a proponent of preflight. We encourage and actively support customer efforts in utilizing this important tool.

Download - A DRAFT (unedited) copy of GPO's guidelines for preflighting files. (320 Kb)

The term preflight is derived from an airplane pilots check of his/her aircraft. Prior to takeoff, pilots perform a routine check of the aircraft to determine if any obvious malfunction, that MAY cause a crash, is likely to occur. In much the same manner, a routine check of digital files must be performed prior to Raster Image Processing (RIP) to determine OBVIOUS problems, and eliminate likely crash causes. If a preflight is not performed on the files output crashes may occur.

Note: A digital preflight is designed to identify obvious errors, and is not a
solution to BAD or IMPROPER design.

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