Connect 12 family ups the ante to make creation, sending and receiving of Certified PDFs seamless and consistent.

Ghent, Belgium - Enfocus today announces the release of Enfocus Connect 12. New features make Connect 12 a unique and highly functional resource for cross-media publishers, production houses, and designers, by ensuring that they create and receive high quality files corresponding to required display or print settings.   

Enfocus Connect 12 - bridging the gap between design and output

With a wide range of browsers and mobile devices (tablets included) in use today, graphic designers must satisfy many masters in the production of any project. And, while they can view their designs on a tablet, phone, or in a browser; only their printer has a complete understanding of what is actually required to produce the final printed piece. 

Fabian Prudhomme, Vice President of Enfocus, says, "Cross-media publishers around the world tell us that up to 50% of the PDFs they receive have serious issues involving color formats, fonts, bleeds, images and more. This is not a sustainable business model for printer, nor designer. Solving this challenge requires a family of technologies that can work together to help both designers and printers to better prepare, manage and produce their work. That's what Connect 12 is all about. It's a family of solutions ensuring that the design that gets created is the design that gets output, without errors or costly hold-ups in production."

Connectors - the heart of Connect

Enfocus Connect gives users the ability to define, manage, and create Connectors. Connect is available in a variety of configurations to meet almost any need of content creators or content producers.

Production facilities and publishers have total control over the settings they include in a Connector - they can create Connectors that only block the time-consuming "obstacles' (e.g. low resolution images or missing fonts), to avoid having to contact the document creator and losing time as a result, or they use the embedded PitStop Engine to perform a more comprehensive check.  Once a Connector is created, all of the settings for job delivery, PDF creation, and PDF verification and correction are built in. Once distributed to the production company's clients and partners, the Connectors can be downloaded and placed on their desktops for easy access. Whenever clients and partners have a job to submit, they simply drag and drop the finished file onto the appropriate Connector icon. The file is automatically checked against the output settings and sent to the print or electronic display producer.

Document creators access the Connector for PDF creation through the operating system's "Print" command, or by using Connect plug-ins for Adobe® Creative Suite® or Creative Cloud™ products, enabling them to easily create a Certified PDF from any application.

The Connect 12 Family is available:

• For cross-media production companies and publishers, Connect ALL is a way to ensure that received files comply with their print and display specifications, and can be seamlessly transferred into their workflows.
• For document creators, Connect YOU makes sure the output of any document is a Certified PDF, ready to be sent for output.
• For cross-media production companies and publishers only interested in ensuring easy and seamless file delivery, Connect SEND is the perfect tool.

Highlights of Connect 12

New capabilities in Enfocus Connect 12 include:

1. Multiple Delivery Points

Users can define up to two unique delivery points for Job Files, Preflight Reports or Job Tickets. This "mini-workflow solution" is built into the Connector.

2. Delivery Flexibility

Connect 12 provides automatic job delivery to a variety of destinations and server types, including the Enfocus Switch automation solution, FTP, sFTP, HTTP, HTTPs, Email, Dropbox, or a local network folder.

3. Job Ticketing

Connect 12 collects customer and job information as part of its customizable job ticketing function. Delivered in XML, CSV or text-only, job ticket fields can be defined and organized to integrate with just about any other workflow. Additionally, when Connect is integrated with a workflow solution such as Enfocus Switch, or an MIS system, "smart" data exchange speeds the overall job delivery process, eliminating unnecessary rekeying of job information. 

4. PDF Creation and Control (Connect YOU and Connect ALL only)

Easily deploy remote PDF creation on any workstation using Connect's built-in Adobe® Normalizer engine. Using standard or custom PDF Settings, all PDFs are generated according to the specifications defined within Connect YOU or Connect ALL. To create PDFs, simply print to the Connector as you would to any printer, or use Connect's plug-ins for the Adobe® Creative Suite® or Creative Cloud™ to utilize special features found in InDesign® or Illustrator®.This functionality includes control over bleeds, marks and printing spreads.

5. Variable File Names for PDFs

During processing, Connect 12 can automatically modify PDF file names by using the PDF's own metadata in conjunction with custom text values.  For example, files can be named according to the Connector, and therefore, the production path for which they are destined. 

Free Upgrade for Current Connect YOU Customers

As part of its ongoing commitment to providing the highest level of service and support to its customers, Enfocus is offering current Connect YOU 11 customers a free incentive upgrade to Connect YOU 12, once they complete a Connect YOU user survey. This offer is valid until September 30, 2014. For more information about obtaining an upgrade to Connect 12, please contact Enfocus at [email protected], or visit the Enfocus website at  www.enfocus.com/connect.