[1] Preflight in the graphic arts industry is the process of checking a digital document before it goes to the plate, print, or otherwise output (exported - such as to PDF).

The term preflight was first used during a presentation in 1990 by Chuck Weger, a well-known industry consultant.

There were some early postscript RIPs that interpreted data and provided a preflight report of sorts.

The first commercial preflight application, called "FlightCheck,"[2] was introduced to the public by Markzware and appeared at the Seybold Seminars Conference at San Francisco in the Fall of 1995.

[3] U.S. Patent, number 5,963,641 [4] was subsequently granted - ‘Device and method for examining, verifying, correcting and approving electronic documents prior to printing, transmission or recording.’ Other preflighting tools have subsequently been introduced,[5] mainly focusing on PDF [6] preflighting.