May 29, 2008 – Gent, Belgium – At drupa, Enfocus will demonstrate major enhancements to its Switch and PitStop product lines and also mark the integration of Gradual Software within the organization.

Enfocus will display the benefits of automation in file handling, reception and production at drupa. Now a dedicated business unit of EskoArtwork, it will be present on both the EskoArtwork stand (Hall 8b stand A23) and in the drupa innovation parc (Hall 7.0/7.0C). The show marks the first public appearance of the newly enlarged company since its acquisition of Gradual Software and the integration of the Switch products into the Enfocus family.

Major upgrades of PitStop Professional, PitStop Server and the Switch product family are shown in both booths. Fully-functional trial versions of these key Enfocus products are available for download now from the Enfocus website at: www.enfocus.com.

“Enfocus wants to enable automation for all participants in the production workflow, even if they use separate and incompatible software,” says Peter Camps, Senior Vice President Enfocus. “To transmit and route jobs, you need a strong automation backbone that makes it possible to interface with third-party systems. Enfocus Switch offers this capability. To reduce the need for manual intervention, you have to validate the content of a job and make sure it matches the agreed quality standards. This can be handled by the Certified PDF workflow offered by Enfocus Instant PDF, PitStop Professional and PitStop Server, with advanced editing carried out if required in Enfocus Neo.”

New product upgrades

The new PitStop Professional 08 offers enhanced ease-of use and speed
Targeting every graphic arts professional using PDF for print, PitStop Professional is long established as the de facto standard for preflighting, editing and fixing of PDF files. The new PitStop Professional 08 takes its functionality to the next stage.

New features include sign-off on preflight errors, a redesigned and significantly more compact PitStop Inspector, better page configuration handling, faster access to common functions through expanded contextual menus and conformance to the latest standards and operating systems.

Additional features include a choice of industry standard color engines, PDF/X-4 compliancy in PDF Profiles and Action Lists (in addition to support for earlier PDF/X levels), easy PDF Profile adaptation to create new preflight profiles from existing items and user-configurable viewing preferences.

The new PitStop Server 08 provides improved performance and full compatibility to the new standards
PitStop Server is a hot folder-based application for graphic arts professionals who need unattended PDF document processing or need to process high-volumes of PDF documents. It is the indispensable tool for pre-flight checking of PDF documents, with facilities for fixing many common problems without human intervention.

New features of PitStop Server 08 include a totally reworked and more intuitive user interface, server based processing (PitStop Server now runs as a service on Windows and as a login item on Mac OS X), the ability to process two PDF documents in parallel offering greater performance, more powerful Hot Folder processing, import and export of Hot Folder settings, a detailed history log, improved security and expanded e-mail notification.

The new Switch 08
Switch 08 is a major upgrade for all products in the Switch family of automation-enabling software (the entry-level LightSwitch, mainstream FullSwitch and advanced PowerSwitch), adding significant new functionality and offering new workflow automation opportunities for ad agencies, publishers and printers alike.

Switch 08 includes many major improvements. Even in complex flows, the job processing has become more predictable and the implementation of real job priorities allows fast-tracking jobs through a flow. Switch 08 also optimizes the time it takes the first job to flow through a complete flow, enabling better resource use of devices such as proofers and rips.

Hot folders, FTP and email receive tools can be scheduled to automatically activate only in a predefined time window and now offer a “read-only” processing mode where the original jobs are left on the server and a copy is processed through the flow. Switch further implements many improved and new tools and enhances variable support. In PowerSwitch, metadata support and scripting possibilities have been greatly expanded and offer for example support for compression, database access and SOAP or web service communication directly from within Javascript.

The Enfocus Theater
During drupa, key Enfocus speakers, distributors, Crossroads partners as well as representatives from the Ghent PDF Workgroup will give several daily informative sessions at the Enfocus theater. Drupa visitors attending these presentations will be updated on the latest PDF and automation tools from Enfocus and key partners.

The new Enfocus product upgrades will be available at drupa on the EskoArtwork booth (Hall 8b, stand 23A) and in the drupa innovation parc (Hall 7.0/7.0C).