Edit the Color

Non-CMYK/Pantone®
FLIGHTCHECK® can be employed to detect when a color model is neither CMYK nor a Pantone®. It is often recommended you avoid using colors which have been defined using some other model, (such as RGB) or colors which do not have corresponding inks available. Pantone® colors are often used because there are published lists of specific color values so that when you use a specific color you will be guaranteed which exact mixture of inks will be used.

During color printing, RGB colors are converted by the output device to CMYK. The problem at hand is how to calculate the exact amount of Black, for there are varying algorithms employed to do this, and therefore there is no telling what the quality will be of the final color output, or whether or not the printing will be lighter or darker than what one had originally hoped.

Unused Spot Colors
If the document's color palette contains unused spot colors, there is a chance the application might output additional unwanted plates (which obviously might be entirely blank). Or, one might over-estimate the cost of a job if one were to include the unused spot colors in the tally of the predicted number of plates for the job. Therefore, it is always best to remove such colors.

Non-Default Trap
FLIGHTCHECK® will alert you when a trap has been altered or edited by the user. It is usually agreed upon that the Service Bureau should be in charge and responsible for editing traps.

Mismatched Colors
A "mismatched" color is a color used within an EPSF image which has CMYK values which differ from the CMYK values of a similarly named color specified within the document's color palette. Such a condition might cause an unwanted or unexpected printout as differing shades of the same color might be used. In this case, you may have to go back and edit the color within the EPSF, or change the color definition within the document's application.

Blends
FLIGHTCHECK® can be used to detect when a blend is present in the document. Often, blends pose no problem, but one should pat special attention to when the starting and ending colors change color models, or switch from process to spot, because such conditions will certainly cause unacceptable printouts. 

Hairlines
A hairline, as defined in the postscript world, is a line drawn using the smallest weight (in other words a single dot) that the output device is capable of printing. At higher resolutions a hairline will appear to be "broken". Therefore, it is always better
to create such line by defining them as having a weight of .25 pts, thus guaranteeing they will be drawn at .25 pts at any resolution.

Sum Greater Than nnn%
FLIGHTCHECK® can be asked to detect the special condition of when a color's CMYK percentage values exceed a sum greater than the specified amount. An interesting example would be the case of the color Black. If you were to use 100% Cyan ink and 100% Magenta ink and 100% Yellow ink and 100% Black ink, then this would total 400% and you would undoubtedly end up with a muddy dark-brown due to the excessive amounts of ink (and for large runs this would be wasting alot of money). It would be far better to simply use a bucket of Black ink.

Flightchecking colors is, for the most part, a relatively easy thing to do, especially when you already know the pre-determined decisions for which colors will be used, will the job be separated or not? Will there be a 5th color plate, and so forth. FLIGHTCHECK® can then be used to dig in a little deeper and catch those hairlines or improper color usages and give you greater confidence and control over your color printing.