Ghent, Belgium—Enfocus, the leader in providing affordable, flexible automation and PDF tools to the printing industry, today announces significant updates to PitStop and Griffin. The 2024 March releases (PitStop 24.03 and Griffin 24.03) introduce innovative features designed to streamline wide format print production. With an emphasis on powerful new editing capabilities and seamless workflow integration, these updates enhance efficiency, quality, and collaboration for print service providers.

Integrated Tools for the Wide Format Print Industry

PitStop Pro and Griffin now work effortlessly together. For printers using Griffin, it’s as simple as opening a 1-Up file, sending it to PitStop Pro to add cut lines and bleed, performing preflight – or using any other PitStop feature – then saving to update the file in Griffin. This unified solution will enhance operational efficiency for wide format printers, enabling them to get optimized files requiring cut paths, bleed, and other modifications to press faster.

PitStop 24.03: Innovations for Cutting Paths, Path Optimization, and Workflow Control

PitStop 24.03 introduces features that address significant challenges in the print production process, including:

? Fill to Stroke: A typical pain point in Cutting is when the cut lines are converted into a shape and are no longer usable as cut lines in production. For example, instead of a stroked circle with a clear cut line, you get a shape made of two sub paths (an outer circle and an inner circle). Those shapes cannot be sent to production for print and cutting. Typical fixes are time-consuming, stall production, and require asking the customer to supply a new file or getting prepress to redraw the shape and take ownership of any unexpected changes. PitStop's new, patent-pending, "Fill to Stroke" feature solves this challenge, by reverting the incorrectly converted shape to its original cut path. It is a major time-saver, enabling the file to be sent to production in seconds. Fill to Stroke can be performed manually or fully automated.

? Simplify paths: Reduces the number of nodes on a path, enhancing performance across PDF renderers, RIP engines, and cutting devices.

? Enhanced bookmark management: Allows for the selection, addition, and removal of bookmarks, streamlining document navigation and organization.

? Default Actions: New Actions designed for color management and large format printing have been added, including detecting overlapping cut lines and reporting pages per color type.

These features, coupled with numerous bug fixes and additional Action Lists, ensure that PitStop Pro remains the ultimate tool for prepress professionals seeking to maximize efficiency and accuracy.

Griffin 24.03: Groundbreaking PitStop Integration and Workflow Enhancements

Griffin's 24.03 release positions it as an alternative to Esko's i-cut Layout for wide format printers and brings many key enhancements, including:

? PitStop Detour: A groundbreaking feature allowing Griffin users to send and edit 1-ups in PitStop Pro to add bleed, create cut paths, and use all other PitStop features before simply saving to update automatically in Griffin.

? Dedicated Onyx RIP export: Offering seamless integration with Onyx RIPs

"We are thrilled to unveil these updates to PitStop and Griffin," said Loïc Aigon, PitStop Product Manager at Enfocus. "By enabling these products to work together more closely and adding a host of new features, we're enabling print professionals to tackle many time-consuming and challenging aspects of modern print production head-on. This is evidence of our focus on innovation, efficiency, and most importantly, our commitment to the print community."

Improved Update Cycle

The updates to PitStop and Griffin also mark a new release cycle for the products, promising feature enhancements three times a year – a significant increase from the previous update cycle. This more rapid iteration will help meet the fast-evolving needs of the print industry.
The updated versions of PitStop and Griffin are available now. For more details on the new features and to explore how these updates can transform your print production workflow, visit the Enfocus website.