Originally it was aimed at commercial print, newspaper and magazine production, but as the use of PDF became more widespread, features were added to help with applications such as digital print, sign and display, packaging and labels as well as traditional repro and advertising. PDF files are opened in Adobe Acrobat, after which the user selects the PitStop Pro menu and can choose to preflight check the files or just edit them. Preflight checks can be chosen from a standard set which include PDF/X and the Ghent PDF Workgroup standards, or users can define their own routines from a list of possibilities.

The preflight check can also include automatic fixes for problems such as incorrect colour spaces, missing fonts or unwanted spot colours.

The user can also manually edit the PDF by selecting image elements or text and modifying them with familiar design tools. How does it differ from previous versions? Alternatively one-click ‘Global Changes’ will correct all instances of an issue in a PDF file. Most importantly, the new version introduces a new concept called Preflight Restrictions. These enable users to define which elements in a file they actually want to check, and how they want them to be checked.įor example it may be that certain checks should only be carried out on a specific PDF layer, colour separation, or only within a particular area or page. The latest incremental PitStop 13 update 1 has the ability to ‘restrict’ the preflight to within a contour or irregular shape. This could be a dieline or cutter guide, for example. ‘Floating’ licences are available, which can be activated and deactivated via the Workgroup manager. This lets different people in a job sequence access PitStop as necessary, without needing to buy a copy for all of them. There is a Server version, intended for a fully automatic checking and automatic fixing workflow, typically for files coming in via e-mail, FTP or web-to-print.

Pitstop pro 12