A number of years ago I was in a job that had me doing weekly press checks for high-run gang print jobs. The press operators were all very professional and well-trained, but it was surprising how many defects would be present after the colors had been calibrated and the "make-readies" had been printed. Some of these were huge runs on Heidleberg presses, with measurable offsets on registration or Pantone colors that were off.

My takeaway from this: if you care about impeccable quality, it's a constant fight to get it and keep it. No one will care about your product as much as you do.

Some things I found useful for these high-value offset print jobs:

1. Print out a hard proof (at full size obviously), and have multiple people review its accuracy.

2. Provide your printer with both a PDF/X file and your Indesign file. Use Indesign. Ask your printer if they have a preference for the PDF/X settings.

3. Provide all of the above to your print house.

4. Request, at the very least, an e-proof from your printer. This is generated after they push it through their processing workflow. If it looks good, your only other concern would be press calibration.

5. If it makes financial sense, schedule a press check. I believe we paid $100/hour for ours, but they would not usually take more than an hour. I'd usually ask for adjustments if they were needed, then pluck off a print that looked good and sign it. I'd take an identical copy for myself. They'd then use this to compare press output with during the printing job. If any part of the job came out like crap, I could use my copy to show how off it was and get a refund or credit on my next job.