Prepress Automation
Preflight on autopilot
Point FlightDeck at your intake folder and it takes over: every incoming file gets checked, outlined, and sorted, then the clean ones are handed straight to your RIP or prep hot folders. The bad files get flagged before they cost you any more time.
Think of it as a digital prepress assistant combined with a complete shop toolkit. Beyond just sorting files, FlightDeck equips you with a suite of Adobe Illustrator automation scripts to eliminate repetitive setup, a digital job board to track work on the floor, a smart inventory monitor, and a press-side color matcher to ensure your prints hit the target.
FlightDeck Core Prepress Suite
How it works
Three stages, in order. A file lands, gets validated against your production rules, and reaches the RIP print-ready, with no stop at anyone's desk.
Approach
Ingestion engineWatches your project directories and stages every incoming PDF the moment it lands. Drop in an EPS and it is converted to PDF on arrival, so Illustrator and legacy art flies the same pipeline with no manual save-as step. No manual sorting, no files sitting unnoticed in a drop folder.
PreCheck
Validation engineReads every file against your production thresholds before it ever reaches the print queue, so nothing broken makes it to the floor. Four modules do the work:
Converts live digital type into clean paths across incoming production files, so nothing reflows or substitutes on the RIP.
Scans every raster element and bounces or flags any asset falling below your production DPI threshold before it prints soft.
Catches art that is linked instead of embedded, from OPI proxies to external file streams and reference XObjects, so low-resolution or missing images never travel to the RIP.
Flags art built in RGB or Lab instead of print-ready CMYK or spot color, from sRGB photos to ICC-tagged images, so nothing shifts or prints dull on a CMYK device.
When a file fails, PreCheck pre-writes the bounce email for you, listing every file that did not pass and asking the sender for a fix, so the job gets kicked back without you drafting a word.
Dispatch
Sort & hand-offRoutes verified, print-ready files straight into your wide-format RIP or prep hot folders. Every job gets filed on the way out, so each file comes to rest in one of three places:
Cleared and outlined, staged for the RIP. The production copy, already on its way to the queue.
Bounced, with the client email already drafted. Every job that needs a better file, held in one place instead of scattered through your inbox.
The untouched incoming file, kept for the record and filed by week, so a year of jobs stays a tidy stack of dated folders instead of one endless pile.
Follow one file
The File's Flight Path
Scroll to follow a single file from the moment it lands to the moment it is ready for the RIP.
EPS → PDF on arrival (Ghostscript)
original → Originals/2026-10-19/
- Fonts outlined to paths
- Resolution 300 dpi
- Linked art embedded
- Color CMYK
Fix/ empty this run
Originals/2026-10-19/StorefrontBanner.eps
PreCheck report written
01 · Approach
It lands on the deck
A client file drops into your Approach/ hot folder. FlightDeck catches it the instant it arrives, no manual import. This one came in as EPS, so it is converted to PDF on the way in, and the untouched original is filed straight to Originals/2026-10-19/, the dated bucket for this week.
02 · PreCheck
Four bouncers, no exceptions
Before it can move, PreCheck reads the file against your production rules: fonts, image resolution, linked art, and color space, each its own check. Live type is outlined to paths so nothing reflows on the RIP. This one is clean, so the verdict is pass.
03 · Dispatch
Three doors out
Dispatch routes it. A pass goes to Ready/, staged for the RIP. A fail would land in Fix/ with the client email already drafted. The original always rests in Originals/. This file passed, so it heads for Ready.
At rest
Where it comes to rest
The clean, outlined copy sits in Ready/ and is handed to your RIP hot folder. Fix/ is empty this run. The original stays in Originals/2026-10-19/, filed by week so a year of jobs is a tidy stack. And every run writes a plain-text PreCheck report, a record of what was checked and where it went.
Companions
Meet the two companions
FlightDeck keeps the files clean. Two standalone companions handle the rest of the floor: Shop Traveler runs the jobs across the shop, and Stock Monitor watches the materials those jobs run on. Both are self-hosted, both install on a shop tablet, and each is useful on its own.
Shop Traveler
Job board · standaloneShop Traveler picks it up from there and tracks the job on the floor. Three things set it apart:
A paper ticket for every job at the bench, so the floor is never tied to a screen to see what runs next.
Follows work by when it needs to start, not just when it is due, so nothing gets left to the last day.
Self-hosted and installed as an app on a shop tablet, running with no cloud and no sign-in.
Stock Monitor
Inventory · standaloneStock Monitor watches the shelf. It counts your roll media, sheet stock, and ink against a par level and flags what to reorder before a job runs out of material. Three things set it apart:
Set a par for each material. Anything at or below it turns magenta and lands on a reorder list, so the thing that would stall a job is the first thing you see.
A once-a-day email sends the reorder list, but only when something new has dropped below par, so a normal day stays silent.
Self-hosted and installed as an app on a shop tablet, counting with no cloud and no sign-in.
Production Tools
The rest of the kit
The Adobe Illustrator® scripts that ship with the suite, plus Drawdown, a color app also available at drawdown.press.
Adobe Illustrator® Production Scripts
The daily-driver scripts that price jobs and strip repetitive setup out of production, one keystroke each from the Scripts menu.
- Area Price Calculator: prices a job in real time by applying your square-foot or square-inch rate to the exact area or bounding box of the selection, then drops the price tags straight onto the artboard.
- Place Spec Text: stamps standardized, editable production notes in a clean multi-line block, centered under the selected object.
- Fiducial Corner Marks: places customizable corner registration targets and margin offsets around the artwork to prep it for CNC print and cut camera routing and finishing.
- Hem & Grommet Marks: draws a 1" dashed fold line just outside the banner and distributes evenly spaced grommet targets inside the finished edge.
- Dynamic Dimensions: wraps the selected objects in scaled dimension lines with width, height, or diameter labels to turn artwork into technical proofs and assembly guides.
- CNC Cost Calculator: estimates cut time and total job cost by measuring vector path length, counting tool lifts, and reading material usage off the bounding box.
- Nesting Auto-Packer: packs and rotates the selected objects tightly into a target area or continuous roll with a 2D nesting algorithm, wringing the most out of your material.
- Image Mirror Bleed: builds a seamless bleed by mirroring the flipped edges of a placed image, with a one-click option to flatten it into a single print-ready raster.
- Keyliner: wraps each selected object in a 1 pt, 100% K keyline at its exact bounds, groups the border with its art, and reselects everything so production keeps moving.
- Dispatch Exporter: splits a job for RIP handoff, sending the Print layer to EPS and the Cut layer to AI in their designated network folders with custom material suffixes, and leaves your working file untouched.
Drawdown Color Matcher
Also available at drawdown.press. Punch in a color reading and Drawdown gives you the exact CMYK move to hit your target, from any browser.
- Runs in any browser, on phone, tablet, or desktop, with nothing to install
- Converts a target color into a targeted CMYK breakdown for your printer
- Matches against a built-in color library, Pantone references included
- Enter a Lab or CMYK value and get the exact move values
- Keeps everything on your device, with no sign-in and nothing uploaded
- Copy the CMYK move straight out to your RIP, mix sheet, or swatch book
- Made for the bench, so you can check color right at the press, not just the desk
What you need
FlightDeck runs on the hardware you already have. Mac or Windows, your copy of Adobe Illustrator for the scripts, and free Ghostscript for the outlining. Point it at a folder and hand off to any hot-folder RIP. Everything runs locally, so your files never leave the shop.
Built by a prepress operator, for prepress operators.
FlightDeck isn't from a software company. The idea had been kicking around in my head for years before I finally built the suite, first for myself, then to share with the other prepress operators and print architects fighting the same troublesome files every day. It started as a personal tool to speed up file prep, became a manager for artwork, and grew into the toolkit I've always wanted. Want more details?