PitStop Server 4

Anyone running PS Server 4.x yet?
Any heads up etc, etc.....?
TIA

Vee

[mattbeals]

It runs great!~

Not only do I sell it and train for it but I use it too!

I haven't found any issues with it in my testing and use. The beta cycle for me was surprisingly clean in that I didn't find any bugs. I haven't been able to find any since then.

In terms of performance it does well. It's a bit faster. It still is not multi-threaded unfortunately. The color management is better because you can now treat images differently than non-images.

Excellent. Thanks Matt.
Hard to believe that even in beta it was running great..
Hopefully that will follow through in production.
I never really found Server slow, except 4+ years ago running on a Power Mac G4 (AGP graphics) 500Mghz. It rips through most everything we throw at it. But any increase in speed is ok with me..
I love the 200+ page books from Word running 4 or 5 action lists at once! Without Server that would be a rough job.

Anyone else have any input on this topic?

Vee

[mattbeals]

Well the actions run consecutively. Server is still a bit of a dog when it comes to performance when measuring it against pdfInspektor and pdfCorrect and PDF Enhancer. Mind you that those are all multi-threaded applications and have been for some time. But it has gotten better since 3.51. And now that it is Universal Binary it should really go a lot faster on the new Mac Pro's and newer Intel based servers. It would be interesting to compare PitStop Server 3 and 4 on Windows Server 2003 on Intel versus AMD chips.

Originally Posted by mattbeals

Well the actions run consecutively. Server is still a bit of a dog when it comes to performance when measuring it against pdfInspektor and pdfCorrect and PDF Enhancer. Mind you that those are all multi-threaded applications and have been for some time. But it has gotten better since 3.51. And now that it is Universal Binary it should really go a lot faster on the new Mac Pro's and newer Intel based servers. It would be interesting to compare PitStop Server 3 and 4 on Windows Server 2003 on Intel versus AMD chips.

Are the callas products hot folder based as PS Server is? Which one of the above listed is comparable to Server, if any? And can you customize them like I can with PS Server via Action Lists?
Could you drop a quick comparison on me..?

You know - I found it interesting that Acrobat uses callas for their preflight engine.. I think people in general may be a little more open to their products knowing this.
I mean, come on... if Adobe is on board.... must be something good going on there!

I'm running Server on a Power PC - Dual G5 w/ 4GB RAM... it's no slouch. At All. I will be putting an Intel monster in it's place this year sometime, I'll let you know how they compare.
Thanks for the input - and again - if anyone else is running PS Server 4, let's hear it.

Vee

[mattbeals]

Well that's just it. There is no *one* tool from Callas that replaces PitStop Server. They have very purpose built tools. For preflighting you would use pdfInspektor CLI. Making changes you would use pdfCorrect CLI. And for color conversions you would use pdfColorConvert.

pdfColorConvert and pdfCorrect aren't as "flexible" as PitStop Server in that they do not have a script like an action list. They are very powerful though. Part of that power comes from their speed. pdfColorConvert is especially powerful in that you can make top notch color conversions and use device link profiles. You cannot convert from CMYK to RGB or spot to spot and such. You can only convert to CMYK.

Now when it comes to being thorough for preflighting pdfInspektor is the most detailed and powerful. In that power comes much confusion though. You can make some pretty strange checks that are really meaningless for most applications. The reports are very detailed and easy to read. Much easier than PitStops reports used to be.

They aren't hot folder based per se. They are command line driven which makes them quite flexible for integration. PitStop Server has a SDK version that make it very flexible too. The Callas programs come with a program called pdfAutomator which makes them hot folder based.

Both PitStop Server and the Callas suite can be automated via SWITCH from Gradual Software. The next evolution of PitStop Server would be PitStop Automate. PitStop Automate is like SWITCH but it integrates PitStop Server into Automate and uses Odystar as the backend engine for automation and customization.

All of the Callas tools are multi-threaded. So you can run multiple instances of each simultaneously. Using pdfAutomator you can control how many instances of each application execute by changing the preference from 1 to 10. Yeah, up to 10 instances of one or up to 10 instances of *each*.

Depending on the volume of PDF's your playing with and what you are doing to them I'm pretty sure that I could bring that nice new Intel monster to its knees.

Callas has been the OEM for Acrobat's preflighting since version 6. It is great stuff. PitStop is great stuff too.

Deciding between the two is usually a tough thing to do. However it becomes very clear once performance or conversions to CMYK become a factor. In those respects Callas wins.

[Static]

I've been trying to get Pitstop Server 4 to run for awhile now. Basicly comes down to the Enfocus support being pretty poor lately. I sent them profiles, error logs, quarenntined files, screenshots of every screen of my workflow and basicly said they couldn't recreate my problem. And after countless emails I ended up figureing the root of the problem my self. Which is Pistop Server 4 now requires you to have folders setup for failed processed files!!! How dumb is that? Oh and btw, my screenshots showed that but the support guy never bothered to actually rebuild my workflow correctly. Actually at first the support guy didn't even test it on a PC until I asked him too since that is what I am running on. So anyway, why would ever want to save a processed failed pdf on an automated workflow. I am useing Rampage btw, so files from Pistop server have to go to certain places for the automation to work.

So their fix is this: setup all the folders and set Pistop Server 4 to clean up he files every so often. Issue there. I need the good files to stay on the system in case the system hangs over the weekend (theoretically) so that means saving files for at least 3 days, which comes to around 2600 pdfs on average 3 day period lately. Thats alot of disk space I'm wasteing.

So I'm not sure if I knew all these issues I would get Pitstop server 4 if you have 3.51 already. And seems to run pages slower then PS 3.51 but its still faster then the RIP time so thats alright. Still debateing if i should spend more time testing it (spent 2 weeks already on it), or just scrap it and stick with PS 3.51.



Static

[mattbeals]

Server 4 is worth the upgrade simply because of compatibility with the rest of the product line. Maybe you need something to drive PitStop Server like FullSWITCH, PowerSWITCH or PitStop Automate. I know it is more expense but it really adds to the value of PitStop Server and makes it much more flexible and powerful.

[Static]

Currently I have a Rampage system with Rampage Remote so everything is automated as much as it can. I have files hit Rampage then go through a preflight process that goes through Alwan Color Optimizer (which fixes any rich black over 300% with in a tolerance of Delta E .5 so color doesn't actually change) and then to Pitstop Server before going back into Rampage and then to Rampage Remote for customer soft proffing. If it errors in Pitstop Server Rampage automaticly emails the customer with the problem and the customer resends the page. Or if they don't want to fix I force it through Rampage and the customers takes responsibility.

I don't think I need anything else to drive it. I get pages sent through Rampage submit and through the workflow and up for softproof for customers to appove in less then 10 mins under light load and within a couple hours under heavy load.

I do have the previous Caslonflow which formerly used to automate the FTP process of sending CIP3 data to the presses before the latest Rampage update. I also still use Color Central for older legacy workflow items which has its uses for a simply hotholder structure.