by Zhenya Dean, Business Analyst
Prepress teams in every print shop will get files from a variety of customers who have wide-ranging file preparation skills. Print production folks also preflight and prepare files for an array of output devices. Publishers, on the other hand, have the added variable of dealing with file preparation for both print and digital outlets. The production requirements are a tad different between making plates for print and digital content for e-publishing. Publishers can greatly improve their time-to-market by supplying quality, job-ready files to their vendors.
They can save time by validating files before sending them off to print. The savings will likely materialize in far fewer files being returned for rework in order to print correctly. There will be less “Mac time” or prepress costs tacked onto their print jobs. Similar savings will be seen by checking files intended for digital markets.
I’m pretty sure that they know this, but I’ll throw it out there, just in case. Publishers should consider investing in some prepress tools, namely PitStop. PitStop Pro is a prepress must-have if you want to get PDF editing and validation done correctly. Users rely on it, wouldn’t want to work without it, and won’t accept a substitute.
Why PitStop?
PitStop Pro comes out of the box with plenty of Action Lists and Preflight Profiles to get any prepress user started. This makes it much easier for a publisher’s production team to dive right in and start saving time. Action Lists perform conversions, corrections, and global changes. Preflight Profiles perform checks and validations while applying fixes. Standard functions are easily customized to turn a lengthy, in-house file prep checklist into a couple of clicks.
What are the advantages?
Publishers will see greatly reduced costs for rework and prepress charges. They will gain confidence in the files that they distribute. Taking advantage of Status Check and Certified PDF will go a long way toward relaying file integrity to vendors. A Certified PDF Preflight lets printers know that a publisher has performed, and the file has passed a specific PitStop Preflight Profile. Status Check quickly lets printers know if a PDF is certified.
Printers should be willing to share PitStop Preflight Profiles with publishers. That would all but guarantee that a PDF is checked exactly the way it needs to be. As for digital distribution, the same original PDF can be converted using custom PitStop Action Lists. Create once. Output twice.
PitStop stands above other PDF software with its industry-leading editing capabilities. There is a huge advantage in being able to make corrections, revisions, and adjustments at any time in the production process. This provides the opportunity to make last-minute changes without wasting the time to collect native assets.
The Enfocus product line:
- PitStop Pro - PDF editing and preflight
- PitStop Server - PDF workflow automation
- Switch - Automation development platform
- BoardingPass - PDF file checking for customer service
- Connect YOU and Connect ALL - PDF quality control for agencies
