Enfocus: Don’t update to
MacOS X Catalina yet!

Enfocus announces that the Enfocus products PitStop, Connect and Switch do not yet officially support the recently released update to MacOS X Catalina. It is recommended to wait with the operating system update until the used software has been tested with the new MacOS version.

MacOS X Catalina only runs 64-bit applications. This update is therefore drastic! Many programs and small helpers will not work anymore. Before the update you should test whether your often used programs are 64-bit. This can be checked with the free tool Go64 from St Clair Software. (Choose All Executables to also include Plug-ins.)

Second edition of «Do PDF/VT Right»
from Global Graphics

Global Graphics has updated their popular «Do PDF/VT Right™» guide.

The english publication offers a good overview on PDF/VT and tells what is necessary for an efficent use of this standard.

In addition to a general overhaul there is a section on the new ISO 21812 standard that allows workflow controls to be added to PDF files.

The new edition also contains notes on Harlequin-specific hints, to get even more speed out of your DFE if you are a Harlequin user. 

 

Global Graphics Supports PDF
Processing Steps in Harlequin RIP 12.1

Global Graphics announced that the Harlequin RIP V12.1 and higher supports PDF Processing Steps.

PDF Processing Steps is a relatively new ISO standard (ISO 19593-1:2018) for clearly defining technical information (e.g. die line, varnish) in a PDF file (usually for packaging) that is not normally printed.

Martin Bailey, CTO of Global Graphics, explains in a comprehensive blog post the additional RIP functions made possible by the PDF Processing Steps.

20 years PDF Workflow

In September 1999, when the first pure PDF workflow system «Prinergy» was introduced by Heidelberger Druckmaschinen and Creo (now Kodak), four tutorials on PDF Workflow were published, which I had written for the two manufacturers.

The tutorials were distributed in printed form (I still have some copies in my basement) and as digital eBooks (of course interactive PDFs) in German and English for free download. The interest was very big. I stopped updating the statistics after more than one million downloads (from several platforms).

Read more…20 years PDF Workflow

Warning for Output Intent
of Affinity Publisher

After I reported about the disastrous PDF/X-4 compatibility of the new Affinity Publisher a few weeks ago, a reader drew my attention to another problem.

When preflighting with the PDFX-ready preflight profiles, a warning is generated regarding the output intent for PDF/X files of Affinity Publisher V1.7.1 and V1.7.2 with the message “!!! Output Intent not suitable for printing (unknown ICC profile)”:

Read more…Warning for Output Intent
of Affinity Publisher