How it works
A workflow is a connected graph. A trigger introduces the job, processing nodes change or route it, and output nodes deliver the result. Test the complete path before publishing it for operators or watched folders.
Help · Workflow orchestration
ImposeIQ Automation Workflows guide
Turn a repeatable production path into a controlled workflow with clear triggers, published versions, operators, and history.
Triggers
Use a watched folder for immediate file-driven work, a schedule or delay for timed batches, or manual submission for operator-controlled jobs. Each start must lead into a valid connected path.
Jobs also arrive from ImposeIQ Storefront: a storefront hands a customer's order to a published workflow with the artwork as the job and the order ticket as job variables, and the run reports its outcome back onto that order. Those jobs carry the trigger storefront-order. See the Storefront guide.
Step library
Available steps cover imposition, marks, sequential numbering/Bates stamp, booklet imposition, color bars, shrink compensation, file movement, rename, copies, reorder cards, approvals, notifications, and delays.
Using the real Suite apps
Install saved Imposition templates and .viq VDP projects into the workflow library. Template-backed steps keep automated output aligned with an operator-approved job setup.
Preflight templates
The Preflight step takes one named template — a saved rule set — rather than a list of individual checks, so a single standard can be reused across every workflow and changed in one place. Three templates are built in. Standard check, the default, confirms only that the file parses and is not encrypted; it is deliberately light so ordinary customer artwork passes. Print ready adds embedded fonts and page boxes that are consistent across every page and correctly nested. Duplo finishing checks the geometry a cutter depends on: no page rotation, MediaBox starting at 0,0, and consistent, correctly nested boxes.
These are rule sets rather than severity levels — Duplo finishing is not a stricter Print ready, and a shop that needs both saves a custom template combining them. Saved templates appear in the same dropdown below the built-ins and travel with a backup file. A custom template can draw on file-integrity rules (encryption, document ID, embedded file references, trapping declaration, permitted compression filters), geometry rules (rotation, MediaBox origin, CropBox against MediaBox, box consistency, box nesting, required print boxes), font rules (embedding and subsetting), color and content rules (RGB, grayscale and spot images, transparency groups, private application data), PDF/X output-intent rules, and whole-file rules for page count and maximum PDF version.
The engine reads PDF structure, not painted content, so effective image resolution, ink density, registration black, actual bleed coverage, and the color of vector or text objects are outside its scope; only declared image color spaces are tested.
Color policy is set on the step rather than in the template — a required rendering intent, a flag for files that mix intents, and a flag for absolute colorimetric — so one template can serve accounts with different color standards. A file that declares no intent passes and the RIP applies its own default. Whatever the file declares is recorded for routing and logging either way.
A failing file can be flagged so a Route step can divert it, or stop the job outright. Both paths set the preflight pass, error text and error count variables, and the step can optionally carry forward a corrected file returned by ImposeIQ Preflight Repair.
Publish and run
Validate the workflow, test it with a safe sample, then publish an immutable version and code. Manual runs and watched jobs should use the published version rather than an unfinished draft.
Operators and settings
Administrator accounts manage workflows, users, watches, and protected settings. Operator permissions should cover only the production actions they need. Session locking protects an unattended workstation.
Quarantine and audit
Use the Review/Quarantine Queue for jobs that need a decision. Run history and the audit log show who performed an action, which version ran, and whether the outcome succeeded, failed, or required review.
Troubleshooting
- Watcher does not start: confirm the workflow is published and the folder exists.
- Node cannot run: verify required template and output selections.
- Job is quarantined: inspect the recorded reason before retrying.
- Delayed job waits: confirm its resume time and published version.