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Guided workflow variation

Preflight software builtfor the print shop counter.

Print Preflight Desk checks each incoming PDF against a profile your shop names and sets, gives one verdict, and saves a report to send back, on a Windows PC with nothing uploaded.

For a shop that wants the same pass or fail answer on every incoming file, it applies your own profiles and writes the report, for a one-time purchase.

Pay once. Own it forever.

One-time purchase on the Microsoft Store · No subscription · Instant install

Get it from Microsoft

Buy through the Microsoft Store—instant install, automatic updates, and a Microsoft receipt for easy expensing. No account needed on our site, and no subscription on Store purchases.

Full Print Preflight Desk overview
One-time purchase No telemetry Local-first

windows · your shop profiles · original only read · nothing uploads · 15-day free trial

If this sounds like your week

Most incoming files are still judged by eye.

Files reach a shop by email, upload portals, and the occasional USB stick. Someone at the counter views each in a reader, zooms into a corner to guess at bleed, scrolls the document properties hunting for fonts, and decides whether it can go to plate. That judgement depends on who is on shift, how busy the morning is, and which rules they recall for that product.

Where tooling usually breaks

A missed fault costs a plate, a slot, or a reprint.

An unembedded typeface, a low-resolution logo, or an RGB photo in a CMYK job rarely shows on a monitor. It shows on press, after the stock is loaded, or at the trimmer when a white sliver appears along one edge. By then the schedule has slipped, the account is asking why it was not caught sooner, and someone drafts a hurried explanation from memory.

Where Print Preflight Desk lands

One profile, one verdict, one report.

Print Preflight Desk replaces the eyeball pass with a repeatable test. Each press, product line, or regular account gets a named profile holding your thresholds, so the rules live in software instead of in one person's head. Load the PDF, choose that profile, and the app returns one verdict with every miss located, plus a document you can attach to your response.

Pay once. Own it forever.

One-time purchase on the Microsoft Store · No subscription · Instant install

Get it from Microsoft

Buy through the Microsoft Store—instant install, automatic updates, and a Microsoft receipt for easy expensing. No account needed on our site, and no subscription on Store purchases.

Learn more about Print Preflight Desk

windows · your shop profiles · original only read · nothing uploads · 15-day free trial

What you get

Feature highlights

Named shop profiles

one profile per press, product, or customer, holding trim size, tolerance, minimum bleed, colour, grey, and 1-bit resolution limits, colour policy, spot colours with allowed names, transparency, and output intent.

Every check with page numbers

page size, TrimBox, CropBox, box nesting, bleed, effective ppi, fonts, colour spaces, transparency, spot colours, and output intent, each finding with its severity and pages.

A preview with the boxes drawn

the page renders with its Trim, Bleed, and Art boxes outlined and their sizes in points, and selecting a finding jumps to its page.

Reports to send back

a self-contained HTML report and a PDF report with the verdict first, the file’s SHA-256, the profile, and every finding with its pages.

A fixed copy for boxes and rotation

Save fixed copy writes the TrimBox and BleedBox from the profile and normalises the Rotate value in a new PDF, listing every change.

Original only read, nothing uploaded

reports and fixed copies are new files, colour, fonts, and transparency stay as supplied, and the app makes no network connections.

Especially when

  • Check every customer PDF against the shop’s own rules for that press, product, or customer, instead of judging it by eye at the counter
  • Get the same pass or fail answer on the same file whoever is on shift, from named profiles with every threshold written down
  • Send the customer a report that lists each problem with its page and the profile’s limit, instead of a rejection email written from memory
  • Correct missing or wrong TrimBox and BleedBox entries in a new copy, leaving the customer’s artwork and original file untouched

Who benefits

Real-world scenarios

A two-press commercial shop

The shop runs a four-colour sheetfed press and a digital press with different rules for bleed, resolution, and spot colours. Counter staff kept applying the sheetfed rules to digital jobs and rejecting files that were fine.

Each press now has its own named profile. Staff pick the profile that matches the job ticket, and the same file gets the same verdict whoever is on shift. The saved report goes into the job folder with the artwork.

A quick-print counter with walk-in files

Customers hand over PDFs on USB sticks and phones, and the counter needs to say on the spot whether the business cards or flyers can print, without a prepress operator in the building.

The counter PC opens each file with Choose a PDF, checks it against the product's profile, and shows the verdict with page numbers. When the file fails, the PDF report goes to the customer with exactly what to fix.

Testing it on last week's jobs

Before buying, the prepress lead wants to know whether the app would have caught the faults that cost the shop reprints in the past month, using the shop's own spec sheet as the profile.

During the 15-day free trial, the lead builds a profile from the spec sheet, opens last week's files, and compares each verdict and findings table with what the team found by hand.

Deep dive

What to look for in preflight software for a print shop

Your rules, not a generic preset. A shop's spec sheet is specific: the trim size for each product, the bleed the cutter needs, the resolution floor for photos and for line art, CMYK only or RGB images allowed, which spot colours a job may carry. Preflight software for a shop should hold those rules as named profiles that anyone at the counter can pick. In Print Preflight Desk every threshold sits on the Shop profiles page, with presets for US Letter, US Tabloid, A4, and A3, or a custom trim size in points.

One verdict per file. The counter needs an answer, not a pile of data. Print Preflight Desk gives every file one of three verdicts: PASS, PASS WITH WARNINGS, or FAIL. Any Error finding fails the file, any Warning makes it a pass with warnings, and Notes are context. The header line sums it up, for example 2 pages, 5 errors, 1 warning, 0 notes.

Findings that point at a page. A customer can fix "page 3, image at 112 ppi" far more readily than "low resolution somewhere". Each finding in the table names the check, such as image-resolution or font-embedding, its severity, its pages, and the reason in plain words, with a detail line where it helps, such as "Nothing was converted. Ask for a CMYK file or change the profile's colour policy."

A preview that shows the boxes. Trim and bleed problems are easier to explain when you can see them. The preview draws the Trim, Bleed, and Art boxes over the rendered page and prints the box sizes in points underneath. Select a finding and the preview jumps to its first page.

A report you can send. Save reports writes a self-contained HTML report that opens in any browser and a PDF report for email, both with the verdict first, the file name, its SHA-256, the profile, and the findings, followed by tables for pages, images, fonts, colour, transparency, and output intent.

Fixes that respect the artwork. When only the page boxes or the rotation value are wrong, Save fixed copy writes a new PDF with the TrimBox and BleedBox set from the profile and the Rotate value normalised, and lists every change with before and after values. The artwork, colour, fonts, and transparency stay exactly as the customer supplied them.

Files that stay in the shop. Client artwork is often confidential until it is printed. Print Preflight Desk makes no network connection, has no account, and collects no telemetry, so files are read and reported on the PC that opened them.

Try it on real jobs. The Microsoft Store runs a 15-day free trial with every feature. Build a profile from your own spec sheet and run last week's files through it before you buy.

How it is built

Built to apply your rules and leave the file alone.

Your rules, by name

Every threshold lives in a named shop profile for a press, product, or customer, so the same file checked against the same profile gets the same verdict every time.

Original only read

The customer’s PDF is opened for reading. Reports and fixed copies are new files, a fixed copy cannot replace the original, and colour, fonts, and transparency stay as supplied.

Nothing uploads

The app makes no network connection, has no account, and collects no telemetry. Files are checked and reported on the PC that opened them.

Head-to-head

How Print Preflight Desk compares

Feature Print Preflight Desk Checking by eye Online PDF checker Subscription suite
Rules it checks against Your named shop profiles, with every threshold editable Whatever the operator remembers for that product The site's own preset rules Profiles, depending on the plan
Verdict per file PASS, PASS WITH WARNINGS, or FAIL A judgement call Varies by site Yes
Findings tied to pages Every finding lists its page numbers Noted by hand, if at all Varies by site Yes
Report for the customer HTML and PDF, verdict first, with the file's SHA-256 An email written from memory A results page, sometimes a download Usually a PDF report
Where the files go Stay on this PC. Nothing uploads. Stay on this PC Uploaded to the site Depends on the product and plan
How it is paid for One-time purchase in the Microsoft Store Operator time on every file Per use or per plan A yearly or monthly subscription

FAQ

Straight answers—no glossary dump

What should PDF preflight software do for a print shop?

It should check each customer PDF against the rules your shop actually prints to, give one clear verdict, point to the pages that miss, and produce something you can send back. Print Preflight Desk does that on Windows: named shop profiles, PASS, PASS WITH WARNINGS, or FAIL, a findings table with page numbers, a preview with the page boxes drawn, and HTML and PDF reports.

Can each press or product have its own rules?

Yes. Make a profile for each press, product line, or regular customer on the Shop profiles page, with New profile or Duplicate. Each one holds its own trim size, tolerance, minimum bleed, resolution limits, colour policy, spot colour allowance, transparency rule, and output intent setting. Pick the profile from the list on the Preflight page, and the open file is checked again against it.

What does Print Preflight Desk check?

Page size against the profile's trim size, the TrimBox, CropBox, and box nesting, bleed on every edge, the effective resolution of every placed image, font embedding and Courier fallbacks, colour spaces, live transparency and its blend space, spot colours and Separation /All, page rotation, and the output intent. Every finding lists its pages.

How is Print Preflight Desk sold?

As a one-time purchase in the Microsoft Store, which shows the current price in your currency, installs the app, and keeps it updated. The Store runs a 15-day free trial with every feature, and there is nothing to activate inside the app. There is no subscription and no account to create.

What happens to the customer's original PDF?

It is only read. Print Preflight Desk opens the file you choose, works out its SHA-256, and checks it against the profile. Reports are new HTML and PDF files in the folder you pick, and Save fixed copy writes a new PDF under a name you choose and refuses to replace the original. The artwork, colour, fonts, and transparency in the customer's file stay exactly as supplied.

Where do customer files go, and how do I get Print Preflight Desk?

Customer files stay on your PC. Print Preflight Desk makes no network connection, has no account, and collects no telemetry; it reads only the PDF you choose and writes only to the folder or file name you pick. It is a one-time purchase in the Microsoft Store for Windows 10 version 2004 or later and Windows 11, on x64 and Arm64 PCs, and the Store runs a 15-day free trial with every feature.

Related pages

A preflight profile for every press and product. Check each customer PDF against the job's print specs. A preflight report the customer can act on.

The customer PDF is in.
Check it against your own rules.

Print Preflight Desk checks each PDF against the profile your shop set for that press, product, or customer, gives PASS, PASS WITH WARNINGS, or FAIL with every finding tied to its pages, and saves an HTML and PDF report to send back. The original is only read, nothing uploads, and the Microsoft Store runs a 15-day free trial.

Pay once. Own it forever.

One-time purchase on the Microsoft Store · No subscription · Instant install

Get it from Microsoft

Buy through the Microsoft Store—instant install, automatic updates, and a Microsoft receipt for easy expensing. No account needed on our site, and no subscription on Store purchases.

Open full product page

Ghent Workgroup and GWG are names of the Ghent Workgroup. Print Preflight Desk is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Ghent Workgroup.

Technical specifications

Technical specifications for procurement

Spec Implementation
Data Sovereignty Reads only the PDF you choose in the Windows file picker or open from File Explorer; writes HTML and PDF reports only to the folder you pick and fixed copies only under the name you choose, refusing to replace the original; shop profiles stay in the app’s own local storage
Telemetry Status None; no account, no telemetry, and the app makes no network connections
Core Runtime .NET 10 and WinUI 3 (Windows App SDK), packaged as MSIX; PDF inspection, reports, and fixed copies in managed code; page previews rendered with the PDF engine built into Windows
Network Requirements Fully functional offline; the package declares no internet capability and the app makes no network connections
Deployment Compatibility Windows 10 version 2004 or later and Windows 11, x64 or Arm64; one-time purchase on the Microsoft Store with a 15-day free trial
Inputs PDF files chosen in the Windows file picker or opened from File Explorer through the .pdf file association
Checks Page size and tolerance, TrimBox, CropBox, box nesting, bleed on every edge, effective ppi for colour, grey, and 1-bit images, font embedding and Courier, colour spaces, live transparency and blend space, spot colours and Separation /All, rotation, /UserUnit, and output intent
Shop profiles Named profiles with US Letter, US Tabloid, A4, A3, custom, or any-size trim; editable tolerance, bleed, ppi limits, colour policy (Classic CMYK, 2015 delivery, or Any), spot count and allowed names, transparency rule, and output intent severity; starting profile built on GWG 2015 sheetfed CMYK
Verdict PASS, PASS WITH WARNINGS, or FAIL; each finding an Error, Warning, or Note, with its check name and page numbers
Reports Self-contained HTML and PDF reports (name.report.html and name.report.pdf) with the verdict, the file’s SHA-256, the profile, findings, and tables of pages, images, fonts, colour, transparency, and output intent
Fixed copy New PDF with the TrimBox and BleedBox set from the profile and the Rotate value normalised; every change listed with before and after values and the copy’s SHA-256