Enfocus PitStop: Crucial for Liberty Press's Custom Workflow

A Partnership Built on Precision: 20 Years of PitStop at Liberty Press

For over 30 years, Liberty Press has relied on industry-standard tools like the Adobe Creative Suite. However, preparing client files for print—a crucial and often complex step—demanded a more specialized, in-depth solution.

"We've been an Adobe user for many, many years, we love their products... but we always needed a solution to help us prepare files for print that played well with the Adobe Creative Suite," explains a representative from Liberty Press.

That solution, discovered two decades ago, was Enfocus PitStop.

Integrating PitStop Pro: Getting Under the Hood of PDF Files

The Liberty Press team was already fluent in Acrobat, InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator. PitStop Pro provided the missing link, offering the "perfect fit" for their prepress workflow by allowing them to work directly within Acrobat.

This tight integration allows the team to "get under the hood with PDF files" and manually prep, adjust, and correct them for printing. According to the team, PitStop is the best way to change PDFs after they are sent by the customer, making it a fundamental tool from day one for new prepress hires.

Solving the Prepress Puzzle: Fixing Unpredictable Client Files

As a custom printer, Liberty Press handles a massive variety of jobs—from phone books and newsprint to high-end glossy magazines and catalogs. Each job requires meticulous attention, especially since "clients don't always send in print-ready files."

The flexibility of PitStop Pro is vital to managing this custom workflow:

• Creating Custom Actions: The team constantly creates "new actions, new pre-flights specific for each customer" to ensure files are as clean as possible before they hit the press.
• Crucial File Corrections: PitStop gives the team the essential "Precision Tools" to fix complex PDF issues that cannot be handled by standard PDF software:
  • Automated Color and Bleed Changes: The ability to automatically change colors, margins, and bleeds.
  • The Four-Color Black Problem: One of the most critical fixes is addressing customer files that use CMYK black (four-color black) for small type. PitStop allows them to go in and adjust this, ensuring the text is "nice crisp text" on press.
  • Press Marks: Ensuring presses receive the specific marks required to line up all elements for perfect registration.

As one prepress member states, "To be honest, I don't think that we could survive without PitStop with the customization that we do here... it's really been crucial in our entire company's workflow."

The Power of Automation: Enfocus PitStop Server and Switch

In the last year, Liberty Press integrated Enfocus PitStop Server, transforming their prepress department from manual precision to automated efficiency.

By routing files through Enfocus Switch and PitStop Server upon submission, the cleanup process is nearly completed before the files even reach the prepress specialist.

"We're getting files cleaner before they get to us because when they submit them through Switch, they're already run through the PitStop Server."

Matt Oldham, Prepress Manager at Liberty Press

Speed, Efficiency, and Peace of Mind

The automation provided by PitStop Server and Switch offers a powerful double check, significantly speeding up the workflow and allowing the team to clean up less on the back end, resulting in much "cleaner, more optimized files."

One of the biggest benefits, however, is the impact on staffing and training:

• Eased Training: With the automated workflow, the manager sets up the actions, and a new employee's initial task is simply to "click a button and go."
• Reduced Pressure: This automation "eased a lot of pressure" on new team members, removing the worry of accidentally messing up a file and allowing them to focus on the bigger picture.
• Learning the Rules: PitStop Server acts as a "huge blessing" for training, enabling new staff to learn the rules of printing without being overwhelmed by the manual intricacies of file cleanup.

PitStop Server allows Liberty Press to maintain its custom, high-quality standards while delivering faster turnaround times and simplifying the introduction of new talent.

Ready to Optimize Your Prepress Workflow?

Enfocus PitStop Pro and PitStop Server are the essential precision tools your team needs to transform unpredictable client PDFs into press-ready masterpieces.

Discover the full Enfocus PitStop family and start optimizing your print production today!

Learn more about PitStop Pro and PitStop Server here.