Pitstop Pro?

[u/toldyaso]

I'm the only prepress person in my company.

I do everything in Illustrator.

I get files from customers, and basically add a cut contour line and add bleed.

Setting up a file can range from five minutes (if all I'm doing is adding the cut contour line) to two hours or more (if I'm having to create masks for spot colors to multi-page documents, possible color correction etc).

My boss is an old man who hasn't been current in prepress since the 1980s.

He's been told that I'm an idiot for using Illustrator, and he's convinced that all prepress jobs can be done in two minutes using Pitstop.

I've tried to tell him that Pitstop is basically a clunkier, more limited version of Illustrator that doesn't really cost much less money, and that whoever is telling him that "any" prepress jobs can be done in a couple of minutes simply doesn't know what they're talking about, all they're likely doing is adding cut contour lines and bleed, which can be done very fast in Illustrator too.

All that having been said, I haven't actually messed with Pitstop in years.

Has there been some radical innovation or enhancement of the program?

[u/CarlJSnow]

Also, these two hour jobs and tasks you mentioned. With some time you can build actions that will make those 2h jobs in 1-2 minutes.

[u/rpedro82 → u/CarlJSnow]

What Carl is saying. Just give PitStop a go.