Enfocus PitStop Pro 09 Review

Via Enfocus, By Simon Eccles: Enfocus has introduced PitStop Pro 09, an upgrade to its core program for preflighting, verification and editing of PDF documents in a professional production environment. It introduces new features, extended Global Changes and new workspace options, all designed to streamline operations for the users. The new version introduces full compatibility with the latest Macintosh OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and Microsoft Windows 7 operating systems, as well as retaining compatibility with earlier systems. Processing is also faster for all platforms. It runs as a Adobe Acrobat plug-in and is compatible with the older Acrobat 8 as well as the current Acrobat 9. PitStop Pro 09 is priced at €599 for a single user version, or €169 to upgrade from the previous PitStop Pro 08. There are discounts for multi-user licenses.

PitStop Pro 09 streamlines preflighting
PitStop Pro 09 is mainly intended for design and print professionals who need to verify that PDF files have been created to the correct specifications and if not, to fix them, thus avoiding expensive delays at the output and printing stages. It is supplied with preset profiles to automate many common preflight and editing tasks requirements. Users can customize these to create their own variations.

If PitStop Pro detects problems, it can fix some of them automatically. Or it will report the problem so the operator can fix them using the manual editing tools. These tools are far more extensive than the limited set built into Acrobat, and also allow for last-minute manual editing changes, if for instance a mistake is spotted or a price needs to be changed.

Certified PDF, an Enfocus maintained, public standard compatible with the Ghent PDF Workgroup’s Proof of Preflight specification, can embed metadata into the PDF, with details of its preflight and editing history. Certificates can be read and updated throughout the PDF’s life cycle. The new PitStop Pro and Server 09 versions use the latest Certified PDF 2.0 standard.

Hands on
We tested PitStop Pro 09 on two Macintoshes and a PC: an old G5 with the OS X 10.5 Leopard operating system; a newer Intel model with the latest OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard; and an Intel PC with Microsoft Vista SP2. All were run within the current Adobe Acrobat 9 Professional. In operation they worked identically, apart from slower speeds on the older G5.

After purchasing and installing PitStop Pro 09, the first time you access it from within Acrobat you are asked to activate it via the Enfocus website, which is a new feature. Enfocus also offers a free 30 day trial of a fully-functional copy that can be downloaded from its website and activated, with the option to purchase at any time.

PitStop Pro has grown over the years to include a huge range of functions, so an important part of the new 09 version is a revised menu structure that makes everything much easier to access. A search menu also helps your find profiles by name, author or description.

An important feature is the new ability to customize your workspace. This allows you to choose different sets of tools and menu panels that appear for different common tasks. You may want to see a different workspace for a particular client that just needs verification and correction to PDF/X settings, or for another that often needs last minute changes to prices and headlines. Controlling this is easy from the new Workspace panel. Starting from the default set, you just tick the option boxes for all the items you want to display (with the option of enabling or disabling them) and then give your new workspace a unique name, which appears in the ‘Local’ section of the list. Any of these can be added to the Favorites section as well and one of them can be selected as the start-up workspace.

The commonly used Preflight, Action Lists and Global Change functions are now all grouped in a new Processing panel, with three simple buttons to switch easily. In each case, Favorites now appear as the top section above the lists of items in a particular menu. Any of these items can be placed into the Favorites sections for rapid selection. Placement can be by simple dragging, or right/CTRL-clicking to reveal an options menu, or by selecting Favorites in the pull-down menu at the top of all PitStop menu panels.

The Global Changes processing engine has been rewritten and makes it easier to apply changes across a long multi-page document, such as changing all RGB or spot colors to CMYK, adding printer’s marks and bleed areas to all pages, or embedding all instances of one or all fonts. It’s supplied with a set of commonly needed changes that can be edited and/or added to the favorites list. Any Global Change can also be exported as an Action list, which can be if necessary supplied to other users.

Editing tools have been extended with a revised Design Layout menu. Its functions have been extended to instantly visualize the current page layout boxes and then to allow the user to modify them, for instance applying trim and bleed marks if they are absent in the original. This can be a particular problem with PDFs that were generated by word processing programs, which do not have the same page definition and positioning functions as a professional layout program. Once you have corrected the working page, a single click applies the same settings to the whole document. It can also visualize the correct position for punch hole binding.

Certified PDF is a major part of the Enfocus working philosophy. With PitStop Pro 09 new Certificates can easily be applied, or checked if they are already present. Certified PDF has its own menu in the Acrobat top bar, opening a panel that displays the status of the PDF with regard to its current preflight profile. A prominent ‘traffic light’ display shows green for OK, amber for a warning that something may need attention and red for a critical failure. You view all the major information within the certificate from here, and also click a single button to re-run the preflight and update the certificate after you make any changes.

Conclusion
When Enfocus first developed PitStop Professional 1.0 in 1997 it was unique and ahead of its time, as PDFs had not become the standard document exchange format that they are today. Today however, it’s no longer alone in the market. Even the standard Acrobat Professional incorporates preflight and limited editing tools.

Rather than just adding yet more editing tools to PitStop Pro 09, Enfocus has successfully achieved a significant improvement to usability so an operator can work more efficiently in a busy production environment, and collaborate with other users who are working with PDFs. There is also the benefit that PitStop Pro 09 works seamlessly with Enfocus’ other preflighting and Certification products.

All together this makes a powerful argument for adopting PitStop Pro 09, or upgrading if you have an earlier version.

Editors’ notes: the Enfocus family
PitStop Pro is part of the Enfocus product family of preflighting, verification and editing tools that can either work together seamlessly within a multi-site production workflow, or operate independently. These are available separately or in some cases as multi-license packs. A set of all of the main programs is available as the Enfocus PDF Workflow Suite.

Instant PDF is the entry level (at €299), intended as a low-cost complement to the other PitStop programs. It’s a standalone program designed for use by designers and other originators of PDF documents, to create Certified PDFs to the exact required specifications, with built-in preflighting and automated fixing. There are no manual editing tools, but problems that can’t be fixed internally are flagged up with instructions to the operator on how to fix them in the layout program.

Instant PDF is supplied with plug-ins or XTension from Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator or Quark XPress as well as Adobe Distiller, appearing as a “Save to CertifiedPDF” menu option. It can run PDF Queues with instructions that have been created in one of the full-function PitStop programs and supplied directly by e-mail or downloaded from CertifiedPDF.net.

PitStop Extreme is a ‘standalone’ high end program for Mac OS X or Windows priced at €2499, offering similar preflighting, automatic fixing and manual editing functions to PitStop Pro, but without the need to run within Acrobat. This means that processing speeds can be a lot faster and there are some additional manual editing tools that are not possible when working within Acrobat.

PitStop Server is again a standalone version costing €2499, but intended for fully automatic operations. It processes an incoming stream of PDFs through hot folders that are set up to run certain preflight profiles and pass the verified files to the next stage in production. When problems are detected, it will fix some of them automatically or diverts them to a holding folder for manual attention with an e-mail message describing the problem and it’s possible remedy to the operator (or the person who sent the file).

PitStop Server works well alongside Enfocus’ €299 LightSwitch configurable automation program. This can be set up to act as a gatekeeper for incoming files, downloading them from FTP services, analyzing their content and passing PDFs to appropriate hot folders for processing by PitStop Server. The FullSwitch (€2500) and PowerSwitch (€5000) programs are even more sophisticated, with “configurator” links to third party programs that can run pre-set editing routines to form very advanced automated workflows prior to output.

Finally, PDF Standardizer is a powerful workflow suite that automates both PDF and color control. It combines PitStop Server and FullSwitch with the CMYK Optimizer color and ink control program from Alwan Color Expertise. This costs €8000.