Seybold: PDF proliferation

MacWeek, August 10, 1998 by Leander Kahney

Vendors set to unveil numerous workflow tools

It looks like PDF and automation will be major themes at Seybold Seminars San Francisco/Publishing 98 next week. Among the announcements is EnFocus Software's DoubleCheck, a new tool for checking and automatically correcting PostScript and PDF files.

Aimed at service bureaus, DoubleCheck is a cross-platform client/server system that guarantees PDF and PostScript workflow for print. Priced at $995, which includes 25 clients, DoubleCheck will ship in November for Windows 98, Windows NT and Mac OS. Further clients will cost $495 for 10.

DoubleCheck was announced in March as Ferrari, and it will join EnFocus Software's growing line of PDF workflow tools. This line includes a visual PDF editor, PitStop, and a PDF print and online preflight tool, CheckUp. EnFocus Software said it aims to ride the PDF wave, which it expects to crest this year. The company estimates that less than 5 percent of the prepress industry now uses PDF, but that the industry's acceptance of PDF will grow to 15 percent in 1999 following Adobe Systems' next release of PDF and Acrobat. This release is expected to solve current workflow problems such as the inability to perform color separations.

EnFocus said DoubleCheck will be distinct from other systems. Competing products such as Markzware Software's Flightcheck create PDF preflight reports but do not perform corrections. And Extensis' Preflight Pro doesn't currently support PDF.

DoubleCheck allows service bureaus to define rules for each type of printing process in the shop using a wizard-like job profiler, EnFocus said. The rules will be distributed to clients, who can then verify documents before sending them out. At the service bureau, the DoubleCheck Server uses a hot folder system to reverify documents and perform a series of automatic corrections, such as normalizing and flattening PostScript files, swapping fonts, and correcting graphics. At every stage, the system produces a preflight report, and users will be able to pull files at any time for manual correction. The system supports PostScript Level 2, EPS, PDF and OPI (Open Prepress Interface) files.

EnFocus will also give away free Mac and Windows PDF plug-ins at Seybold: EnFocus EyeDropper for measuring color; EnFocus Guides, to create custom guides; EnFocus Measure for measuring the distance between points in a document; and EnFocus Browser, which provides access to a file's low-level object hierarchy.

In other PDF news at Seybold, Ultimate Technographics will show a beta version of its Printdesk OPI PDF Server. The Mac-only system, due for release late this year for $2,000, converts PostScript files to PDF on the server and features built-in preflighting and print management. A Windows NT version will follow, Ultimate said.

The company will also show the Ultimate On-Q Server, which it said will be the only Mac and Windows NT OPI server to offer automatic trapping and imposition for PostScript 3 and PDF.

Callas Software GmbH will show pdfOutput Pro, the first Acrobat plug-in to create color separations, Callas said.

Compatible with any PostScript output device, pdfOutput Pro will ship in September for Mac OS, Windows 95 and Windows NT for $299. Callas said the plug-in outputs any combination of plates and creates crop and registration marks on the fly. The company will also announce the pdfToolbox Pro bundle, which will include pdfOutput Pro and pdfToolbox 1.1. It will ship in September for $499.

EnFocus Software Inc. of Denver can be reached at (303) 393-7282 or (888) 363-6287; www.enfocus.com.

Ultimate Technographics Inc. of Montreal is at (514) 938-9050 or (800) 363-3590; www.ultimate-tech.com.

Callas Software GmbH of Berlin is at 49-30-4439-0310; www.callas.de.

Double-checking PDF True to its name, Enfocus DoubleCheck processes PDF and PostScript documents twice: once at the client and again at the service provider, where the detailed autocorrection is performed. The client or service provider can pull the document from the workflow at any time and fix it by hand.