(Norwell, MA) October 29, 2003…In a new report by CAP Ventures, analysts investigate the preflight software market, the applications available, and the vendors offering the tools. The report is entitled Production Workflow Solutions Product Compendium: Preflighting and is available immediately.  In the printing industry, the term "preflight" became popular in the 1990s as software developers began to create solutions for helping graphic designers, printers, and service bureaus ensure that digital files would be checked and that any mistakes would be fixed prior to prepress.  Using a series of automated and manual steps, preflighting software analyzes the readiness of a native digital file. Simple preflighting programs check for file soundness, usually based on a selection of pre-programmed or user-definable parameters. Many of today’s more robust preflighting software solutions, however, offer automatic correction of common file problems as well as error identification features for problems that are not automatically correctable. The programs typically operate as plug-ins to many of the most popular desktop publishing packages or standalone programs that operate independently or in the background.  “A number of preflighting software solutions are available, although none of the packages are able to automatically solve all preflighting problems,” commented Holly Muscolino, a Director at CAP Ventures. “The leading products are proficient at identifying and correcting common and recurring errors, saving time and expense in document production, but the human eye is still the final arbiter in determining satisfaction with the final product.”  CAP Ventures’ Preflighting report is the seventh in a series of product compendiums from CAP Ventures. The compendiums are a comprehensive resource for print service providers seeking information about software tools and infrastructure for printing and print-related services.  Each compendium provides a description of the product category, focusing on those features and considerations that are of the greatest importance to print providers and the print production workflow. The documents also offer a brief description of the products within each category, a discussion of how the various products within each category are positioned in relation to each other, and vendor profiles.  The compendium is structured into 11 product categories:  1.     Digital Personalization Applications 2.     e-Business Infrastructure 3.     PDF Workflow 4.     Datastream Transformation 5.     Business Process Management and Control 6.     Content Technologies 7.     Preflighting 8.     Soft Proofing 9.     Color Management 10.    Data Mining and Data Cleansing 11. Scanning and Make-Ready The first seven compendiums are available immediately to clients of CAP Ventures’ Production Workflow Solutions Consulting Service. To learn more about the compendiums or to make a purchase, please contact Stewart MacDonald at (781) 871-9000, ext. 175 or [email protected].