The robust, stand-alone PDF editor offers many fine controls that the PitStop Pro Acrobat plug-in don't, but it comes with a hefty price tag.PDF has evolved to the point where designers can build incredibly complex files in page-layout apps such as QuarkXPress and InDesign designated for output on large presses. But once they convert those files to PDF, they become prone to a recurring problem that plagues the entire publishing industry: deadlines.
While designers get all the feature-blasted apps that can create the cool creative stuff, the print production worker's typical choice for last-minute fixes is a copy of Acrobat, souped up with plug-ins. Enfocus—which makes PitStop Pro, one of those Acrobat tools that enable editing—shipped Neo 1.1 last week to the print production folks down the line from the designers. The stand-alone PDF editing application can make all those cool-but-error-ridden Quark files print. It also enables last-second text and layout changes that deadlines always precipitate.
Changes like the ones a printer described to Stan Lemmens, marketing manager for Enfocus parent Artwork Systems: PDFs for weekly fliers from one of the printer's grocery-store clients routinely come without prices. This particularly cutthroat retailer likes to wait up until right before they print it for insertion into newspapers to determine what will be most competitive in light of its rivals' announced specials of the week.
Neo offers functions to edit PDF beyond what Acrobat—even when loaded with Enfocus' own PitStop Pro plug-in—can touch. It's an object-oriented editor that can grab text and objects like designers can in applications such as InDesign. Neo started its life as a tool Artwork Systems created for its own print workflows; Enfocus spun it off for a larger audience. Among the heavy lifting it can do in prepress PDFs:
- Edit PDF 1.6 separations, including fine controls such as ink varnish instructions
- Edit text
- View and measure
- Selection tools with fine control a la Photoshop and Illustrator
- Edit photos directly or hook into Photoshop, do edits there, and port the edits to a PDF file open in Neo
Neo comes in two flavors, with trapping ($7,500) and without ($4,500). Lemmens says that before deciding to roll out different versions, Enfocus polled users—some of whom already have invested much time and training in trapping solutions of their own and don't want to buy expensive features they already have or, in the case of simpler publications such as newspapers, they don't need.
The software might be controversial in some corners of the PDF world, where some developers and users like the "lockdown" part of the PDF format—the fact that a file can't be edited makes PDF more appealing. Tools like Neo unlock the files and give print production users a million ways to change PDFs.
"It speaks to responsibility," says Filip Carrein, worldwide product manager of Commercial Color & Publishing for Artwork Systems, who adds that prepress workers aren't looking to crack open press PDFs in order to change the content of magazine articles.
Instead, they're more interested in fixing the Coca-Cola ad because the company made one size of a full-pager for 20 publications, and it might be a half-inch too short for yours. "Most of the corrections they need to do is changing the page layout so it fits the physical dimensions of the [printed] page."
Adds Lemmens, who in Belgium lives a bit closer to the no-holds-barred Autobahn than his U.S. counterparts, who are often stuck on 55-mph interstates: "We've built the functionality in the program, but it's like a car you buy. Just because it goes 200 miles an hour doesn't mean you may go 200 miles an hour. Some places, you're expected to go 80."
The application—downloadable for a 30-day trial—also is compatible with Enfocus' Certified PDF system that tracks changes, confirms it matches printer profiles and also preflights files for possible errors. It's not compulsory, however; those working outside the Certified PDF universe don't have to turn it on.
The Certified PDF element, however, can help alleviate customer fears that production staff will use Neo to edit PDFs beyond the scope of their instructions, as it logs the date and time of every alteration to a file.
"It's straightforward who did what, at what moment, at which machine, and why," Lemmens says. "Certified technology provides that traceability—if you use it, it's up to you."
Enfocus plans to release a Neo 1.2 update this summer.
Document Management 
