New PitStop versions include breakthrough PDF Geomapper technology

Following a successful beta program involving hundreds of customers from around the globe, PitStop Pro 2017 and PitStop Server 2017 are now available for end-users while PitStop Edit 2017 and PitStop Library 2017 are available for OEM partners.

2017 marks the year that PitStop celebrates its 20th anniversary. Through all these years Enfocus remained the market-leader in providing PDF quality control, correction and editing solutions under its PitStop brand. With version 2017, Enfocus increases the benchmark by making PitStop the most powerful and technically advanced PDF preflight and correction solution on the market today.

PDF Geomapper

The development of the PDF Geomapper represents the start of a new generation in the way PitStop preflights and corrects PDF files.

Andrew Bailes-Collins, Senior Product Manager responsible for the PitStop product family, explains: “The use of PDF Geomapper and other upcoming technologies means that we are no longer constrained by the PDF format in the way we define objects for preflight or correction. For our customers this means they can look forward to unique functionality from Enfocus that will really help them to process their jobs more reliably and efficiently. Using PDF Geomapper, irrelevant objects in a PDF file will be ignored or removed, and the decisions on what to do will be based on underlying or overlapping objects."

PitStop users can look forward to more groundbreaking functionality in future versions.

40+ Devicelink Profiles shipped as standard to manage Ink Coverage and convert between color standards

CMYK-CMYK Devicelink profiles are becoming more prevalent in the industry for ink saving, total area coverage, color separation normalization and conversion from one printing standard to another. PitStop Pro and PitStop Server have supported the use of Devicelink profiles for many years, but it was necessary for customers to supply their own profiles. With the support of sister company X-Rite, PitStop Pro and PitStop Server will ship with over 40 Devicelink profiles. These profiles are designed for reducing Total Area Coverage of ink and also for conversion between common standard printing conditions such as SWOP, GRACoL and Fogra.

Improved Ink Coverage Check

The check for Ink Coverage in PitStop also sees a major improvement via the restrictions concept. Previous versions of PitStop calculated the ink coverage based on all the separations in a PDF file. This new version allows the user to define which separations should, or should not be included when calculating this check.
This means that technical inks or special effects such as varnishes, white ink or emboss will be excluded, resulting in a more accurate and meaningful check.

Round cornered Rectangles based on Page Boxes

A much requested feature particularly from our customers who are involved in label production. It’s now possible to automatically generate a round cornered rectangle based on various values including PDF Page Boxes. Along with this new ability also comes the option to generate rectangles with round corners for dielines/cutter guides.
PitStop 2017 ships with two default Action Lists to generate a rectangle to the PDF Trim Box with an overprinting spot color ‘die’, one has a fixed radius value and the other is variable to allow the radius to be set at runtime.

New layers category in the PDF Preflight Report

Layers in PDF files are becoming more and more important as they are used for a variety of production techniques including the upcoming ISO19593-1 Processing Steps specification. PitStop already has many options for creating and editing PDF layers, but now will now include a dedicated chapter in the PDF Preflight Report. This chapter details the properties of all layers in the PDF file, including if they are empty.
The PitStop Pro PDF Preflight report can be viewed manually, whilst in PitStop Server the Preflight Report can be generated in PDF as well as in XML, opening up all sorts of opportunities for additional processing and integrations with other solutions.

New Inspector interface for analyzing and editing Transparency Groups, and analyzing Masks

PitStop Pro 2017 contains a new Inspector tab dedicated to Transparency, Transparency Groups and Masks. Transparency groups can be selected, and their properties viewed and even edited. A new mask tool enables masks to be diagnosed so their type can be identified and the mask can be analyzed so its construction is understood.

Other enhancements include: 

• Official support for OSX 10.12 Sierra
• New Preflight Restriction Action Lists
• Latest Adobe Transparency flattener available in PitStop Server
• New Actions for moving and deleting pages
• New checks and fixes within the Preflight Profile editor
• New standard Action Lists with new and improved functionality

Getting your hands on the new PitStop 2017

Maintenance customers will automatically receive their new PitStop 2017 product key(s) and download links to the product installers.

Customers who’ve purchased PitStop Pro 13 after the initial PitStop 2017 announcement, issued on March 8, 2017, are also entitled to receive their 2017 version.

Customers with older PitStop versions are offered several upgrade options. Contact your local Enfocus sales representative for all available options.

New customers can purchase a perpetual license or a subscription licensing. Consult the www.enfocus.com website for more details or consult with a local Enfocus channel partner.

Customers using an OEM product which either includes PitStop Edit or PitStop Library are advised to consult with the respective OEM sales representative.