Shareable Preflight Report

Instead of attaching the preflight report to an e-mail, you can share it with a link. Only signed-in members of the same organisation can open the link; it is not a public page.

Creating the link

• Single file: when the check is finished, Copy share link.
• Batch check: when every file has been checked, Share report. A report can hold at most 20 files.

For a single-file report you can also choose a File role (artwork file, interior pages, cover, specification, supporting document), and you can tick Add the ink view to the report (off by default; see "Ink view per page" below). The tick is cleared after each share.

The Share link in Studio creates the same kind of report link; opening it also needs a sign-in and the same organisation.

Who can open the link?

Signed-in members of the same organisation. Someone who is not signed in sees a message saying they must sign in to see the report. A wrong key, another organisation and a missing report all get the same "not found" answer. A member without an organisation can open only their own report.

What is in the report?

• The file name and size, the verdict (for example "Review"), the counts of errors, warnings and info notes, and the list of findings.
• What was measured and what could not be measured; if the list is partial, the report says so.
• In a single-file report, extra blocks: the What needs fixing? summary, Findings on the pages, the Colours and Document facts sections, an export button for the findings and, only if the sender ticked it, the Ink view. They are described below.
• A batch report is separate: see the "Batch report" section below.
• The date the link expires and a "Request quotes for this job" link.
• Always this notice: it is diagnostic evidence only, not a production proof, and the file itself was not modified.

What needs fixing?

Directly under the verdict you find the What needs fixing? summary. It is only for single-file reports and it lists only errors, under the heading "Blocking findings to fix":

• Findings with the same finding code are one line. A finding without a code is a line of its own. The line shows the stored text of the finding; if the texts within the group differ, it starts with "For example:". "found N times" appears when there is more than one.
• Each line gives the pages, in ascending order. At most 8 pages are written; the rest are summed up as "and N more pages". A group with no page at all says "No page given"; if only some findings have a page, the summary shows "findings without a page: N".
• The line that affects the most pages comes first.
• Each line carries the word "Error" next to its icon.
• Warnings are not listed, only counted: "There are also N warnings; warnings do not block."

The summary is drawn only from the findings stored in the report. If the list was cut, or if the report does not record how far the list goes, the summary says so. If the scope was not recorded and the report recorded a number of blocking findings left out, that number is marked "at least". If the scope is known and the number of blocking findings left out is recorded, the exact number is given; if the list was only cut, the summary gives the number of findings left out (all severities), when known. "No blocking findings to fix." appears only when the list is complete and has no errors. The summary never changes the verdict.

Findings on the pages

In a single-file report, findings are shown on a page frame, with the areas the engine reported. The page image is not stored and not drawn; there is only an empty page frame and the place of the finding. A place without a box does not mean it is fine. The report carries at most 12 marks per page, for at most 100 pages. So that it can be told apart in greyscale too, the line type shows the severity: a thick solid line is an error, a double line a warning, a thin line a note and a dashed line low resolution. This section does not change the result.

Document facts

Document facts gathers, in a single-file report, what was measured about the file and what the file declares about itself. It is informational only: it does not change the result or the Ready status, and it carries no PDF content. Names come from the PDF and are shown as plain text. Nothing here is a fix or a conversion. The report adds this information by itself when it is shared; there is no tick box. If the server does not accept the facts block, the report is not shared; if the block cannot be added to the report, the report is shared without it and the sender sees a note about that.

The section is four cards:

• Document: page count, PDF version, page size (in mm; portrait, landscape or square; the source of the size is TrimBox, or CropBox if there is none, or MediaBox), size mix (Single size or Mixed), page rotation, which page boxes (MediaBox, CropBox, TrimBox, BleedBox, ArtBox) are present, the declared bleed and the highest total ink observed.
• What the file declares: the PDF/X version and output intents (OutputIntent) the file claims for itself. They are marked "declared, not verified" and are not a conformance result. If there is no PDF/X claim it says "No PDF/X claim recorded"; this does not mean the file is not PDF/X.
• Fonts: the numbers of fonts that are not embedded, in total, subset and unnamed, and a table (name, type, embedded, subset, ToUnicode). Fonts that are not embedded come first in the table.
• Images: the total number of images, the split by colour model, bits per component, effective resolution (lowest resolution first) and the number of images whose resolution was not measured.

Things to know when reading this section:

• Information that was not recorded is written as not recorded, not measured or could not be evaluated; it is never written as "0", "no" or "passed". Not recorded does not mean "none".
• Bleed and total ink are "at least" values. Bleed is a lower bound over the pages that could be measured and does not show that the bleed is enough. For ink, overprint is not taken into account and the value is not compared with any limit; it is not a pass result.
• If the page geometry was not described exactly once for every page, the size, box, rotation and bleed lines say "not recorded". Single size is written only if all pages were measured and are the same.
• At most 8 output intents, 200 font rows and 12 image rows are shown; for more, a note appears. If the record gets too large, the font rows are shortened first, then the image rows; the totals stay exact.
• If a list is partial, it says "The list is incomplete", the numbers are written as "at least", and an empty list does not prove that the file has no fonts or images at all. If no non-embedded font was seen in a partial list, it says "The number of fonts that are not embedded could not be evaluated."
• If the facts block never got into the report, the section does not appear at all. The absence of the section does not mean the file is good.

Colours

The Colours section is added automatically when a single-file report is shared; there is no tick box. No page content and no file is sent, only the colour names and models the check already read.

• Named colours (spot colours, varnish, registration). Each is listed with its name as written in the PDF (control characters removed, long names shortened to 64 characters), its kind (Spot colour, Varnish or Registration (all plates)) and its fallback model (CMYK, RGB, Greyscale, Lab or Other). Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black are not listed. If the list is cut or may be incomplete, the report says so; an empty list does not prove that the file has no spot colours unless the report says the list is complete.
• Device colour models used. The rows DeviceCMYK, DeviceRGB and DeviceGray say Used, Not used or Could not be measured. "Not used" is shown only when the list is complete and the file has no ICC-based, indexed or DeviceN colour. RGB is not an error here; it is information.

What the section does not show: ink coverage (that is the ink view), colour swatches, and on which pages a colour sits. Spot colours alone do not block Ready; the section is information only and does not change the result. If a report has no colour list, it says so; this does not mean the file has no spot colours.

Ink view per page

The Ink view is an optional block that the sender adds when sharing a single-file report, by ticking Add the ink view to the report. It is off by default.

• The sender's browser measures total ink (TAC) on the sender's own computer, for the first 100 pages. It can take a while. Only measurement numbers go into the report, no PDF content. While it measures, the sender can press Cancel sharing; then no link is created.
• If the file is too large to measure in the browser or the ink cannot be measured, the report is shared without the ink view and the sender sees a note saying why.
• The viewer shows "Ink map for N of M pages", the limit ("Limit: ...", or that the report names no limit, in which case nothing is marked as over a limit) and a tile for each page with the page's highest value. Order lets you choose Page order or Highest TAC first, and one page can be shown larger.
• An area over the limit gets a bold outline; an area that could not be measured is hatched; next to unmeasured paint the value is written "at least". A page with no measurement says "No measurement for this page". Pages beyond the first 100 are not measured, and the view says so.
• Overprint and blends are not measured. RGB, spot colour and some images cannot be measured either; these areas are hatched.
• The ink view never changes the verdict, Ready or the findings.

A report without an ink view says "This report has no ink view" and says nothing about ink coverage. Reports shared from Studio have no ink view.

Exporting the findings

In a single-file report, Export findings downloads the findings as CSV or JSON. The file is made in your browser from the data the page already received; no separate request is sent and there is no PDF content. The same finding code repeats on a separate row for every page it affects; the rows are not added up. A "false" or "unknown" value in the file shows that the check was not completed, not that the file is clean. The export is hidden on paper.

Batch report

The shared report of a batch check is shorter. For each file it shows the verdict and the counts, the most important blockers (at most 15 findings) and the list of finding codes (at most 60 codes, at most 20 pages for each code). The What needs fixing? summary, Colours, Document facts, Findings on the pages, the file role and the ink view are not in a batch report.

What is not in the report?

The PDF itself is never in the report, and neither are internal evidence records; there is no page image or thumbnail either. The report carries a summary of the findings, the measurement numbers and, in a single-file report, the document facts (numbers, names and flags); the named colours are added as written in the PDF and, if the sender ticked the box, the per-page ink numbers are included too. Nothing else from the PDF is sent. The report was measured in the browser; NowToPrint did not measure it again, and the report is not a production proof.

Managing the link

The person who shared the report and your organisation's admins can do the following under Manage this link:

• Shorten expiry. The expiry can only be moved earlier, never later.
• Revoke link. This cannot be undone; everyone who has the link loses access straight away.
• See who opened it: the member's display name, the last opening and the number of openings.

Versions and comparison

When you check a corrected file, Check a new version lets you share the report as the next version of an earlier report (single-file reports only). The report says "Verdict unchanged" or shows the change in the verdict, and sorts the findings into Fixed, Still open and New. The comparison matches findings by their finding code, not by file name. If one side was only partly measured, only whether the verdict changed is shown.

Printing

Print report on the report page opens your browser's print dialog. Printing is also done only from the page that is open to members. Check the print preview before you print.

• On paper the report starts with a header line: "NowToPrint pre-check report", the file name, the report date (single-file reports) and, if known, the date the link expires.
• Coloured backgrounds are removed and the text is black. Finding cards are not split across pages.
• A severity is carried by its word (Error, Warning, Note) and the shape of its icon, not by colour alone. On the page frames the line type carries it.
• The tables in Document facts are not split in the middle of a row.
• The ink view is designed to stay readable in greyscale: each tile prints its highest value as text, unmeasured areas are hatched and areas over the limit have a bold outline.
• Buttons and panels, such as Manage this link, are hidden on paper.

When the report cannot be loaded

If you open reports very often in a short time, the page may say "This report cannot be opened" and "The report could not be loaded." The limit for opening reports is 120 requests per minute per member and 240 requests per minute per IP address. That message can have other causes too. Wait a moment and press Try again. In Manage this link, a change made too often shows "Too many requests. Wait a moment and try again."