Commercially available as of last week, the developer said the software features new productivity tools for printers and designers including a collection of powerful and customisable PDF tools to help with the creation, pre-flight, and delivery of quality PDFs for print.
It offers a collection of pre-set personal workflow applications that can perform a variety of tasks such as adding bleeds, checking image resolution and scaling documents.
Connect 2018 also has an all-new backbone which includes compatibility with Enfocus Pitstop Pro 2018, which was launched in April, 64-bit compatibility for the new MacOSX, and a new web engine that improves web form compatibility for HTML job tickets.
Enfocus managing director Wim Fransen said: “The Connect product family focuses on combining the most powerful PDF creation technology with Pitstop and file delivery to build personal automation tools that can be used to perform a variety of tasks relevant to graphic arts file creation and professional printing.”
Connect 2018 creates workflow apps for MacOS or Windows that help individual contributors to perform more complicated or repetitive tasks.
The creation of consistent PDFs for print or more complicated tasks such as scaling documents, adding bleeds and removing rich blacks could all be automated, Enfocus said.
Additionally, the company said that almost any task that can be done with its Pitstop Pro software can also be automated with Connect.
“What’s important about the apps created by Connect is that they can simplify complex processes for users who are not technical,” said Enfocus Connect product manager Michael Reiher.
“For example, a customer service representative at a print service provider currently sends jobs to pre-press to have them checked for common issues, which takes time and resources.
“However, with a Connect app like the ones included with Connect 2018, they can just drag and drop a PDF onto the app and get the same information without going to pre-press – a real time saver and it allows them to service customers much quicker.”
Connect 2018 already includes several predefined automated apps for designers and printers. Designers can use the software to create certified PDFs for print and to create PDFs for print from Microsoft Office documents.
Printers, meanwhile, can use Connect to check PDFs against job specifications, check image resolution, fonts and colours in a PDF, add bleeds to most PDFs – including Office documents, change page trim size, scale documents to size, and prepare documents for large-format printing and cutting.
Connect 2018 is available in three different editions. Connect You is a single user edition available for $150 (£114) per user. Connect All supports an unlimited number of internal or external users and is available for $3,500 plus maintenance.
Finally, Connect All 2018 is available at no additional charge for any Connect All or Connect Send customer with a maintenance contract.
