What is a check press?

The record-breaking number of Americans—nearly half of them women—who have stepped into the role of gun owner means we have the opportunity to add millions of new faces to the Second Amendment community. But since some of them might not be aware of just how large and enthusiastic our community is, it is incumbent on us to let them know we are here. Some ways to do that are to invite them to the range, talk about firearms and help them learn by sharing information found in articles like this. For example, here I’m going to cover one function that all firearm owners should understand: the press check.

Table of Contents Show

How important are press checks nowadays
Additional information

What Is a Press Check?
A press check is the act of pulling your action open slightly so that you can see a chambered round, but not so far that you cause the round to be ejected from the firearm.

You can do a press check with a pistol, rifle or shotgun, but I’m going to focus on a pistol because the most common reason to perform a press check is to verify that your concealed-carry firearm is loaded. Ideally, you would do this every time you don your concealed-carry firearm.

How to Perform a Press Check
How you perform the action of a press check will depend on your firearm and hand strength.

Option 1: Wrap your fingers over the top of the rear end of the slide, thumb tucked under the beavertail or top-most back of the grip. You can press the slide toward your thumb and this will open the action slightly to allow you to see if a round is in fact chambered. This option is easier to perform for those with limited hand strength and for pistols with heavy springs that require a lot of force to overcome. You will tend to find serrations or cuts in the slide on many of the new pistol models precisely engineered to facilitate manipulations like this.

Option 2: Another way to perform a press check is to grasp your slide just behind the front sight with your thumb and index finger, and press the slide rearward just enough to see the chambered round. This will be easier for stronger hands and pistols that do not have very heavy springs. One tip is to also push with your hand holding the pistol grip to help overcome the spring tension.

Safety Note
Follow the rules of firearm safety when handling your firearm, empty or loaded. But when performing any action where you assume the gun is loaded, you need to be keenly aware of the placement of your fingers in relation to the trigger and muzzle. Keep your finger off the trigger and out of the trigger guard completely. Additionally, handling any firearm requires that you consider where the muzzle is pointed (not at your finger or body) and what’s beyond it like the potential neighbor in an apartment building or on the street outside. It’s a great idea to consider that when you handle a firearm, especially inside a building, you find a “safe area” like you would have on a range, where no people could potentially be in front of your firearm.

Troubleshooting
If your slide doesn’t close all the way after you check for a round, tap the back of the slide with the palm of your hand to push it into “battery” or a fully closed state.

If you accidentally eject the chambered round, continue pulling the slide back all the way rearward and let it slingshot forward to chamber the next round. Then drop your magazine, put the extra round back into it, seat it back in your gun and proceed with life. It will happen if you are overzealous or trying to perform a press check too aggressively.

As you begin to work with firearms and learn the terminology surrounding their use, focus on clear, controlled and thoughtful attention to what you are doing. Don’t rush or reject help. Firearms are tools, but like any powerful tool, they need proper training in regards to safety. So don’t put yourself or others in a potentially problematic situation just because you don’t want to look like you don’t know something. Ask for the explanation or concept to be broken down again and master even the simplest facets of gun-handling so that you and those around you truly are safe. It’s okay to say, “I’m confused.” or “This is my first gun/time at the range.” to your instructor.

Most of all, be proud of the fact that you have taken the steps required to own a firearm and take charge of the personal safety of yourself and your family!

A press check or printing press check is a procedure to allow a print buyer, designer or agency to validate the printed matter, prior to the job being printed.

This article discusses:

the basics of press checks
how to prepare for a presscheck
a checklist of what to look for
the list of things for which it is too late once the plates are on the printing press
additional information

Basics

The main goal of a press check is to make sure that the color on press comes as close as possible to the latest color proof that was created during the proofreading and color proofing stages. By requesting some small adjustments, the color may better match your expectations and improve the quality of the publication. During this quality check, other aspects can be validated as well, such as the paper stock that is used and possible prepress issues. Press checks are typically done for projects in which color accuracy is important such as art books, catalogs, money, or stamps. The validation can happen because the customer insisted on it. For art projects, it may also be the artist who demands it. In that case, both a representative from the publisher and the artist may perform the check.

Due to differences in the printing process, paper stock,… an exact match may not be feasible. Based on feedback from the person doing the press check, the press operator will change settings on the press to fix things. Once an acceptable match has been established, these sheets are signed off and both parties keep a copy. These might be used later if there is still a discussion about the color quality of the final printed and bound publication.

Larger books may consist of many press sheets. Usually, not all of these sheets will be checked since that would take too much time. Typically the publisher selects one or a few sheets that are representative of the content of the publication, does a press check on these, and trusts the printer to use equal settings for all the other sheets.

A press check takes place once the printing press is set up but before the print run is started. Depending on the production schedule of the printer, this means it might happen at odd moments, such as late in the evening or very early in the morning. The check can take place at the press on the production floor or the printer may have a separate office for this, which is equipped with a lightbox. For larger orders, printers may offer a press check as a free service, else it may require some insistence of the print buyer.

Press checks used to be pretty common, but they happen less frequently nowadays. There are a number of reasons for this:

The current crop of color proofing devices is capable of generating proofs that match the printed end result pretty well.
Printers have adopted procedures to standardize color reproduction, leading to more predictable results.
Modern presses offer better quality and consistency.
More books get printed abroad, making it too expensive for the publisher to do an on-site check.

Bring along the latest revision of the color proofs.
If a corporate style guide is available which contains the corporate logo or other artwork in the correct color, bring it along. If you are checking a reprint or a job that resembles a previously printed document, bring that as well.
Pack a swatch book if critical Pantone colors are used in the job and they will be printed in CMYK.
Don’t forget a loupe to check details and registration. If you don’t have one, borrow it from the pressman (and lose some credibility along the way).
Make sure you can get to the printer on time! There is NO excuse for keeping a running press waiting.

The first thing to check is if the correct paper stock is being used. Check the color, weight, and texture to make sure that it is the stock that was ordered.
Scan the entire flats as they come off the press to check the color balance across the sheet. Flat tints should be uniform.
Check if the content is consistent with that of the proof. Look for missing elements and make sure the latest changes that were done for the last proof also appear on the printed sheet. This validates that the printer used the correct final revision of the layout.
Fold down the press sheet or cut out the trimmed pages. This allows you to see what the final bound result will look like. If the job includes crossovers make sure that these are consistent in quality and density.

Check the overall color quality of images. Pay special attention to flesh tones.
Check if the colors of the corporate logo(s) are correct.
Images should not be too heavy or dark due to excessive dot gain.
When the sheet is cut up, putting flat tints from one side of it next to the same tint from the other side of the sheet makes it easy to check color consistency.

Modern presses have automatic registration controls and other mechanisms to improve the quality and consistency of the printed result. The use of CtP also reduced the risk of artifacts during plate making. It still is useful to look at the technical aspects of the press sheets:

Check the registration of the press. Bad registration can introduce color casts and affect the sharpness of images and screened type.
Check for printing artifacts such as broken type (such as vanishing thin strokes), scratches, hickeys (odd little circular spots that are caused by dust), spots, or ghosting.
Check for prepress and plating artifacts, such as scratches. Check accents and other special characters as these sometimes get mangled if a different RIP is used for creating the plates. Check some headlines and body text as well to see if there is no reflow of text compared to the final proof.

During a press check, it is too late to complain about typos or other layout issues. These should have been taken care of during the proofreading stage. It is also too late to request major color changes. There is a limit to what pressmen can still do on the press. This is again something that should have been dealt with during the correction cycle.

While it may be possible to cancel the press run and do last-minute corrections, this will cost money and delay the job. If you insist on this, make sure you understand who is going to pay for it and what the impact of the delay will be.

How important are press checks nowadays

In November 2011 I put up a poll on this site asking visitors how much press checks are still used. As with any poll, the results need to be taken with a grain of salt but they are interesting nevertheless. There is also a thread on the b4print forums to share opinions about press checks.

The need for press checks