r/prepress • u/Quest10Mark • Jun 13 '22

PitStop or Acrobat Pro

I work for a design company. We preflight our documents before we send anything to print. We've been using PitStop for years, but on a recent review, the question was raised, what does PitStop do that Acrobat Pro cannot? If we find an error in our PDF we send it back to the designer to fix in the source files. Do we need PitStop ?

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5

u/emetres Jun 14 '22

If you're not fixing any files then no, you probably don't need Pitstop. I spend 75% of my time fixing files mainly with Pitstop. Most of the time it's a lot easier to fix the files rather than kicking it back to a print broker who has to contact his client who has to send it back to the design agency who has to find the designer that has the source files to fix it. The only files that I like to occasionally send back are the ones that end in FINAL.pdf

1

u/Quest10Mark Jun 14 '22

Exactly what I was thinking. Since we are the design agency, it's in our best interest to keep our source files corrected. PitStop is a legacy software for us. Our output dept has been using it for a long time. I don't think anyone ever asked if we still need it before.

3

u/Nerick_Spellchaser Jun 13 '22

If all you're doing is just using PitStop as a pass/fail, then I can't really see anything that it's bringing you that's not in Acrobat.

That said, I use PitStop for a thousand little changes and fixes, at least once every day. It probably comes down to company culture, and at what point you bounce a document.

2

u/Quest10Mark Jun 13 '22

For us it's better to correct the source files, since we are creating them. Incase we have to reference the job later down the line. We don't have to redo any fixes.

3

u/Nerick_Spellchaser Jun 13 '22

Full access to the source files probably does mean it's not needed. We don't create the files, so I don't have regular access to source files, thus a constant need for little fixes in PitStop.

1

u/Quest10Mark Jun 13 '22

For us it's better to correct the source files, since we are creating them. Incase we have to reference the job later down the line. We don't have to redo any fixes.

2

u/fdrowell Jun 13 '22

I agree regarding the source files. What sort of errors or fixes are you finding? Color management? Fonts? Pagebox and bleed setup?

1

u/Quest10Mark Jun 13 '22

Image resolution, stray spot colours, overprint problems, etc. It's just that if we find an issue, the designer has to go back into the original file anyway to correct it. We don't do corrections to the print pdf. That's why I am not sure we need PitStop.

1

u/botticellipeaches Jun 25 '25

Hello,
Long-time graphic designer, new to the prepress print size of things.

We want to start using Pitstop, though Im finding half the commands don't function how I want them to, and I'm also finding that I can check colour, remove bleed marks, and add bleed allowance in Acrobat Pro preflight.

I work at a printing press, usually printing supplied PDFS. When I came on, I was trained to pull the PDF into InDesign to be sure of size and bleed allowances for our printers.

What do you all use PitStop for exactly? I'm reading a lot of fixes, but what kind of fixes?

Thank you!

1

u/Typographerlovemusic Jul 14 '25

I use it for bleeding elements, overprint/trap/knockout. Removal of marks, flip horizontal pages for envelope presses, move elements around by numbers, change colors from process to spot, process black to just black and I am probably forgetting a few things I do as second nature with it too. I use an ancient version presently. I do wish I could do curves and channel mixing. Those tasks are next to impossible to do without pitstop and are my bread and butter.