advanced PDF preflight and
correction solution

• 40+ Devicelink Profiles - As standard to better manage Ink Coverage and convert between color standards

• Support for PDF 2.0 and PDF/x-6

• Checks PDF files for missing bleed and can also automatically add bleed if it is missing.

•  PDF Geomapper - Removes PDF format constraints in the way you define objects for preflight or correction

•  Crop Line Art - Allows hard cropping of Line Art to quickly clean up files and unwanted clipped content data

•  New layers category in the PDF Preflight Report - More in-depth reporting on layers, including empty layers

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

Other Enhancements Include:

• Official support for OS Compatibility: macOS 11 Big Sur through macOS 14 Sonoma,
  Apple Silicon M1 chip, and Windows 10 and 11 64-bit

• New Preflight Restriction Action Lists

• 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

OS Compatibility: macOS 13 Ventura, macOS Sonoma,
Apple Silicon chips, and Windows 11

40+ Devicelink Profiles to manage Ink Coverage and color standards

CMYK-CMYK Device link 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 and PitStop Server will ship with over 40 Devicelink profiles. These profiles are designed for reducing the Total Area Coverage of ink and also for conversion between common standard printing conditions such as SWOP, GRACoL, and Fogra.
 

PDF GeoMapper Technology

PitStop introduces new and innovative technology, extending the possibilities of preflight and correction by allowing unique new ways for objects to be selected or ignored.

An example would be configuring preflight checks to check only the objects needed to render or print a PDF file. Any additional hidden or unneeded elements can be ignored or even removed, greatly reducing the complexity of files, and false error messages, which might stop a file in production without reason.

Initial implementations of this new technology were first seen in the Drupa release of PitStop to help reduce the number of false error messages. Introduced as a market-leading first in Preflight, checks could be restricted to within an irregular shape such as a cutline or structural design information.

Expanding the PDF Geomapper technology, Enfocus continues to deliver market unique solutions by allowing decisions to be made based not just on a single object, but also by taking into account other objects, underlying or overlapping the original.

Improved Ink Coverage Check

Particularly useful for customers in packaging, labels, and large format, the check for Ink Coverage has been improved so that it can work with selected inks and ignore named separations such as ‘white’ or ‘varnish’.  This new version allows the user to define which separations should, or should not be included when calculating this check.  This results in a more accurate check as only the actual printing inks will be used. 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.
 

Pantone Color Actions

Enables you to easily and quickly check spot colors against the correct Pantone Color Library to ensure that colors are consistent across all pages of a document.  You can even remap Pantone colors based on a name match.  Document color palettes are uniform and look great throughout the print production process.
 

Action List Visualizer

This new addition allows one to see what an Action List is doing as it is being created.  This enables faster generation fo correct and powerful action lists to quickly fix any problems.  better Action Lists mean faster file pre-flighting and automated correction processes.  Edit Action Lists as you work to fine tune processes on the spot.
 

New Inspector interface

PitStop Pro 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.

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, while 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.

More About Enfocus PitStop Pro

Preflight, fix and edit PDF files in Adobe Acrobat

PDF files can be painful to work with. Your customers don't deliver them as expected, they don't output as you want them to, and more than often you need to edit the PDF even though Adobe Acrobat doesn't support it. PitStop Pro is a plug-in for Adobe Acrobat that offers the solution to your problems. With PitStop Pro, checking and editing a PDF will be a piece of cake!

PitStop automatically fixes most common errors in PDF files

In PitStop Pro, you can set a preflight profile or use one of the many default profiles that ship with the plug-in. When you preflight a PDF file, PitStop will automatically create a clear report which tells you exactly what you need to do to get the file fit for purpose.

10 most common problems you can
prevent by Using Pitstop Pro

Why preflight PDF files?

Checking the quality of PDF files before printing is absolutely essential because what you see on the screen is not always what you get in print. Preflighting PDFs has become a common practice in the print industry. Today, more than 80% of printers make use of professional preflight tools. Since 1993, Enfocus PitStop Pro has always been the pioneer and industry-standard PDF preflight tool.

Every day thousands of printers, publishers, and designers are saving millions and ensuring their quality control by pre-flighting PDF documents.

Very simply put, preflight is checking the quality of PDF files before they get processed. Preflight checks whether the characteristics of those files are in sync with your desired output.

Preflight ensures not just the technical content of a PDF file but also the predictability of the layout and design based on the printing technique, printing device, and substrate used.

IMAGE RESOLUTION
For print output, the image resolution needs to be higher than for viewing a PDF on a screen, a general rule of thumb is the resolution should be 2 x your halftone screen ruling. Otherwise, you will see jagged edges and artifacts in the image. 

Before a PDF file is ready for printing you need to make sure the image quality is high enough. The image resolution needs to be higher for printing than for viewing onscreen. If not, the edges will appear jagged and artifacts will appear in the image.

PitStop Pro's PDF preflight:  A low-resolution image may look fine on your computer, but the final printed result will be jagged and blurry. To detect low res images, you can use PitStop Pro’s preflight feature. It will tell you whether or not the image resolution settings match the purpose of the PDF file.

ADD BLEED
If a file contains images or content that extend to the edge of the page and it contains no or not enough bleed, white borders can appear after cutting the sheets.

     PitStop PDF Preflight can check if bleed is present in a PDF file and add it automatically.

And now PitStop Pro can automatically generate bleed to enhance final print quality.

And now, PitStop can be set to automatically add bleed to PDF files!

    •  It mirrors individual objects close to or across the PDF box to create bleed.
    •  These objects are completely editable for manual adjustments.
    •  Bleed can be generated for multiple objects, or for complete pages and documents.


UNINTENDED RGB
Unintended RGB images in PDF files can cause unexpected results after processing. The images could be of low quality, the final printed color could be incorrect and there may even be a color shift.  It’s not uncommon that RGB images to slip into a design and end up in the final PDF for printing. Images that have been downloaded from the internet or imported from a camera are most likely RGB images. In this case, these should be converted to CMYK.

     Automatically find and convert RGB images to CMYK - If a PDF contains RGB images, this can cause unexpected results after processing the PDF file. Colors may be altered and the images could appear of low quality. To prevent this, PDF files should be checked for RGB images which should be converted to CMYK.

PitStop Pro checks if RGB images are present in a PDF file and automatically converts these RGB images to CMYK, all without leaving Acrobat!

SPOT COLORS
Most designers like to work with spot colors (e.g. Pantone), especially in logos. But in many cases, these logos need to be printed using only CMYK inks, an extra 'dedicated' ink for the spot color is more expensive.

     PitStop PDF Preflight checks on the presence, number, and suffix of spot colors.
     PitStop PDF Preflight can handle color conversion from and into spot colors.
 

FONT ISSUES
Numerous problems can occur with fonts. If a font is not embedded, the output equipment will need to replace that font with another font. This font might look similar, or not. In all cases, it will be a different font. Small type can become hard to read when printed, especially if it's printed in multiple colors.

If a font is not embedded in a PDF file and the viewer of the file does not have the font installed on his computer, another standard font will be shown as a replacement. The same can happen in workflow and RIP systems which will cause unexpected results. This can be avoided by embedding the fonts in the PDF.

     Embedding vs. subsetting fonts in a PDF
          Embedding a font in a PDF: Every character of the used font is stored in the PDF.
          Subsetting a font in a PDF: Only the characters that are used in the design are saved in the PDF.

     Small type becomes unreadable
          Small text can become hard to read when printed, especially if it's printed in multiple colors. PitStop Pro can check if type smaller than a predefined value is present in a PDF.

WHITE ELEMENTS
Ever seen a job where a white element looks great on the screen or paper proof suddenly disappears when on the press? White elements could be set to "overprint", which means that the white ink will be output on top of the inks below and basically disappear. Unless you are in packaging or use a specific white ink in your production process, the white elements should be set to "knock out"

     PitStop PDF Preflight can check if white elements are set to knock out.
     PitStop PDF Preflight can automatically fix white elements so they knock out.

The white text could disappear after processing a print job. This is often caused because the white text is set to overprint. If this is the case, the ‘white ink’ will be output on top of the other ink below and the white text will disappear. Unless you are in packaging or screen printing or use actual white ink in your production process, the white text should be set to "knock out".

When white text is used on a darker background, it should be knocked out. The white text is literally knocked out of the darker background, which makes the paper show through.

DEEP BLACK
How do you define a nice deep ('rich') black, one that won't cause trouble on a printing press? Every company has their own recipe for a nice black. But a black that carries too much ink can be a problem for some printing methods.
A black that's too heavy can cause web breaks on a web press and marking or set off.

     PitStop PDF Preflight can specifically check for too high Rich Black color values.
     PitStop PDF Preflight can reduce or standardize the Rich Black values to your own values.

TRANSPARENCY
Although transparency is now a widely accepted functionality within the most design and page layout applications many printing companies are still wary of PDF files containing transparency and like to give them specific attention to ensure they are processed and imaged correctly.

     PitStop PDF Preflight can check files for transparency.

LAYERS
Layers were introduced with PDF version 1.5. These layers can be visible, or hidden. If your proofer or your RIP doesn't support PDF v1.5 or higher and there are layers in the PDF, they will be placed on top of each other.
If a file contains a hidden layer, which is set to 'Always print', it will be printed.

     PitStop PDF Preflight can check if hidden layers are present in the file.


INK COVERAGE
Excess ink coverage causes marking from one sheet to another, long drying times and increases the risk of spoilage. Wet paper can cause registration issues and can cause you to have to slow the performance of a press to ensure the final printed quality.

PitStop PDF Preflight can check and reduce ink coverage.

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