Create, verify and deliver quality PDF's for Print... Connect 11 Announced!

[WiseGuy]

Today we (Enfocus) announced an all new product line... Connect ALL and Connect YOU 11.

Enfocus Connect 11 combines PDF creation and quality control with hassle-free file delivery for the graphic arts professional. There are two editions in the family, Connect YOU for designers, and Connect ALL for service providers or creative organizations that work with many outside clients.

More details including informational webinars introducing the new product line can be found on the Enfocus Website at:

Connect YOU: Connect YOU
Connect ALL: Connect ALL - Streamlined job delivery with quality.

Webinars for Connect:
Learn with Enfocus - Free PitStop and Switch webinars

Michael Reiher
Product Manager, Enfocus Connect

 

[WiseGuy]

More on Connect

More on Connect

I wanted to expand on the above and maybe start some discussion with this group.

One of the big motivations with the development of Connect 11 was to try and look at the production challenges with PDF's in a different way. As we dug into the issues we saw many hurdles for Designers in creating good quality PDFs for print as well as we saw that many service providers (printers) were spending lots of time in production fixing PDFs, chasing down file elements (like fonts) and trying to educate their design customers on how to create and submit better files for print.

With Connect, we set out to help correct this problem by focusing in on correcting common production issues at the designers workstation. The idea with Connect ALL is the service provider makes all the settings for PDF creation, verification and fixing and it's encapsulated in a mini application we call a Connector that the Designer can access easily. Therefore the Designer doesn't have to know what settings to make for the PDF generation or correction.

Obviously, I'm being brief, but I'd love to know your take on this approach and what you see in your production when it comes to the quality of PDF's from your clients.

Michael Reiher
Product Manager, Enfocus Connect

 

[SlaveToTheMan]

I'd imagine we have most of the same complaints about client submitted PDFs as most: Lack of bleeds, low res images, duped PMS swatches, non-embedded fonts etc. And then there's the hurdle of even getting designers & clients to use a standardized PDF Preset in the first place. It would have to be really simple & require practically no change on their part to however they're doing things already.

For example, somebody who has been submitting good PDFs all along won't want to use this new Connect unless there are some quantifiable benefits to them - they won't likely care if it helps the printer in terms of faster & more reliable production. Why should they?

The ones that struggle to create consistent, high quality PDFs may be more open to using this tool, particularly if there have been charged incurred to fix their files for some time but I'd guess most shops just "wing it" and eat that cost already too.

I'd love to see more about how the Connect YOU & Connect ALL actually function, are there demos planned, or anything more than the fluffy intro video already posted on the Enfocus site?

 

[WiseGuy]

Good feedback!

To start... yes, we're going to have many webinars coming up... you can join one of these, but we can also arrange a one-on-one if you'd like... here's the link to the webinars...

Learn with Enfocus - Free PitStop and Switch webinars

As for your comments on designers. I agree, there are many designers that just don't care about doing anything that will help the service providers. Been that way for many years. However, from what we've seen with Instant PDF, which had similar benefits to Connect by helping designers standardize their PDF's, we were able to sell thousands of this application... so I'd say there is also a good number of designers that do want to do better for the downstream production. Also, there are the benefits for them of less requests from their service providers after submitting a job because you have what you need the first time... and with the integrated delivery, it can all happen in one easy step making very easy on them.

It may not be for every designer, but it should help with a good number of clients. I'd love to show you more and get more feedback. Let me know.

Michael Reiher
Product Manager, Enfocus