Enfocus to Show Graphic Arts Solutions at Ipex
GENT, Belgium—Enfocus announced plans to exhibit a full range of solutions at Ipex 2010, scheduled for May 18-25 in Birmingham, U.K.
“Ipex is an important show for the European graphic arts community and a perfect venue for major product announcements,” comments Fabian Prudhomme, vice president of Enfocus. “The Enfocus presence will not disappoint show attendees. Visitors to our stand will have the opportunity to see the latest updates to our popular PitStop and Switch product lines as well as see first-hand our brand new product that will debut at the show.”
The mission of Enfocus has historically been to find ways to connect islands of automation to streamline production and increase productivity, largely focused on the printer and publisher side of the equation. “At Ipex,” says Prudhomme, “you will see us expand our focus into the creative community with solutions that will safeguard quality throughout the entire production chain.”
Prudhomme explains that in 2010 Enfocus has a strong growth strategy in place, remaining committed to helping all stakeholders in the graphic arts community to work smarter, not harder, by bringing to market tools and solutions that reduce costs, eliminate errors, and save time. “We’re here to stay,” he says, “and we will continue to play a leading role in PDF, preflighting, and automation for both printers and creative professionals. The primary focus of our tools is to make our customers more competitive by automating their workflow and freeing more time for them to concentrate on their customers as well as be more creative.”
Automate, control, and protect:
Visitors to Ipex can see Enfocus’ contributions to the graphic arts community through demonstrations of Enfocus' products focused on three main themes:
Connecting designers, printers, and publishers:
• Enfocus plans to debut PitStop Connect, a tool that enables printers to create Connectors (small desktop tools) containing specific PDF specifications for preflight, which can be branded to designers and creative professional customers. The Connector can be distributed as many times as needed and is free for the creative professional. PitStop Connect makes it easy for creative professionals to deliver perfect PDFs to their printer or publisher partners by dropping their PDF files on the connector. The Connector preflights the file and transmits the file to their printers by delivering it to an FTP or via Switch.
Ensuring quality control:
• PitStop Pro 09, the Adobe® Acrobat® plug-in for checking and fixing PDF files in professional publishing environments, will be added to Enfocus’ line up. Editing tools makes it possible to do last-minute corrections both for individual objects and globally throughout the entire PDF document. The tools in PitStop Pro are production oriented and allow users to tackle problems actually experienced in specific workflows.
• Enfocus also plans to show PitStop Server 09, a preflighting and auto-correction tool for high-volume and unattended PDF workflows. Built on the Enfocus preflight engine, it checks all aspects of PDF files and detects missing or corrupt fonts, incorrect colors, objects without bleed, and more. PitStop Server 09 fixes those common problems by taking such actions as adjusting the colors of PDF files for a particular output device, and adding stamps, watermarks, or background templates.
• Finally, PitStop Extreme 08, a stand-alone high-efficiency PDF editor built to allow quick checking and correcting of complex PDF files, will also be shown at Ipex. PitStop Extreme is targeted for industry professionals working to tight deadlines and needing to change text, edit or swap an image, alter page boxes, add or convert separations, or just move and resize elements on the page.
Easing automation:
• Enfocus also plans to show updates to its Switch line. Switch 09 is the Enfocus Switch family of automation-enabling software including entry-level LightSwitch, mainstream FullSwitch and advanced PowerSwitch. With Switch, job processing becomes predictable—even with complex flows—and the implementation of real job priorities allows fast-tracking jobs through a flow. According to Enfocus, the latest version of Switch 09, released in February 2010, makes it easier to create and edit workflows, introducing more powerful tools for larger environments and featuring a completely renewed SwitchClient.
