Prepress · live tool, not a deck
The prepress editor that knows the product, not just the file.
Banner. Canvas wrap. Kiss-cut. Panels. DTF white ink. Eleven product profiles. The grunt work happens automatically. You override anything.
Drop a real file. See what we’d do with it.
Run a real file through it
The mirror still happens in Photoshop.
Per image. Ten steps. Every canvas, every order. Breathing Color built a whole product to do this for canvas. We baked it into a profile.
“Mirror wrap was an arts-and-crafts project on every canvas. Now it is a profile.”
Prepress lead, sign shop (paraphrased from a Signs101 thread)
The cut path still gets built by hand.
999 of 1,000 customer files arrive with no CutContour. Your prepress lead opens Illustrator and draws one. Per sticker. Per kiss-cut. We generate it from the artwork edge and name the spot correctly for your cutter.
The DTF underbase still has to be re-tuned.
Spot name silent-fails. Choke is too tight or too wide. The transfer halos on a black tee, the customer notices, the job comes back.
These three are the daily grind. We have eight more profiles for the rest.
The eleven profiles
One engine. Eleven profiles. Every product type your shop runs.
Each profile is a real preset for a real product type, run by the SeedOS engine. Status is honest. See what’s live, what’s bounded, and what we hand off to a third-party tool you may already license.
Canvas Wrap
Mirrored edge bleed for the wrap-around. Replaces the per-image Photoshop loop.
- canvas_wrap
- bleed_mm: 40.0
- bleed_mode: mirror
Panels & Tiling
Oversized prep with overlap guides and seam suggestions that look at the artwork, not just the math.
- tiling
- tile_width_mm: 600.0
- tile_overlap_mm: 12.0
White Ink (DTF)
Underbase, choke, flood, validate. So your DTF transfer doesn’t halo on a dark garment.
- generate_white_underbase
- add_white_flood
- validate_white_ink_layer
- white_spot_name: White_Ink
- white_mode: underbase
Banner
Bleed, hems, grommet placement. One profile per finishing style.
bleed_mm: 10.0 · grommet ⌀12mm × 4
Roll-Up
Bottom slug + hardware allowance for the stand.
bottom_slug: 120mm · top: 20mm
Sticker / Kiss-Cut
Auto-generated CutContour with the spot name your cutter expects.
spot_name: Kiss-cut · stroke: 0.35pt
Shape Cut
Named spot contour for shaped cuts (CutContour, Thru-cut).
spot_name: CutContour · stroke: 0.35pt
Cut With Bleed
Bleed and cut contour generated together. No more offset math by hand.
bleed_mm: 3.0 · spot_name: CutContour
Cut To Size
Normalize page boxes. Crop to the intended trim.
MediaBox / TrimBox / BleedBox
Color Remap
Rename a spot for production (Thru-cut → CutContour). PMS-to-press fixes.
source → target spot
Page Assembly
Split or assemble multi-page PDFs into predictable artifacts.
assembly_mode: split_pages
11 profiles. 140 underlying capabilities. 50 available, 57 bounded, 14 guarded, 12 planned, 7 external_required.
Your shop runs something we haven’t named yet? We name it during onboarding. Send three real files. The roster grows with the shop, not the release schedule.
See it run
What happens when you drop a real canvas wrap PDF.
This is the Canvas Wrap profile, running end-to-end. No login. No sales call. Yours, not ours.
The file lands in your prepress queue.
12x18.pdf · 1 page · idle, waiting for profile
This is canned. Real drop coming this month.
Our prepress engine runs the work. It respects your PitStop, Callas, or Phoenix license.
Eleven prepress profiles, run end-to-end by the SeedOS engine. If your shop already pays for PitStop, Callas, or Phoenix, the engine routes through your license instead of duplicating the bill. If you don’t, the native path covers the same operations on the available capabilities.
The boring part, done right
Yes, we also do preflight properly.
Preflight is table stakes. Every job runs through eighteen native checks. The fixups stage decides what to repair, what to flag, what to refuse. The real work happens after.
Sizing & geometry
- Bleed is present and the right size
- Trim matches the ordered size
- Right number of pages
- All pages are the same size and right-side-up
- Page boxes are consistent
Cut paths
- Cut path exists where it should
- Cut path is clean (not broken, not duplicated)
- Spot colors are named correctly for your cutter
White ink (DTF)
- White ink layer is set up
- White ink layer is positioned correctly
Resources
- All fonts are embedded
- Image resolution is high enough to print
- Lines aren't too thin to print (hairlines)
Also checks color (most files arrive right, but we look)
- Color mode is what you expect (CMYK / RGB / spot)
- Transparency flagged for flatten
- Overprint settings flagged
- PDF/X markers detected
Repairs that need a certified PDF engine (PDF/X, transparency flatten, overprint, font embed) get handed off to your PitStop or Callas license. The native engine detects. You confirm. The handoff is explicit.
(Under the hood: 18 named functions in checks.py.)
The guarantee, in writing
Built. Automated. Connected. Or you don’t pay.
Vendor-adjudicated guarantees are noise. We measure done against a real acceptance checklist. If it’s not met after 60 days, you don’t pay Operational Onboarding, get 3 months free, and keep every workflow we built.
See the four acceptance criteria
- 3 product profiles live At least 3 of the 11 (Banner / Canvas Wrap / Kiss-Cut / Panels / etc.) running on real files.
- 1 RIP hot folder wired Your Caldera, Onyx, Fiery, or Wasatch hot folder receives print-ready output from SeedOS.
- 5 real jobs through end-to-end Customer file → SeedOS → RIP → press, with no manual fixup in between.
- 1 customer-approval thread closed At least one customer reviewed and approved a SeedOS-prepped proof in their portal.
The bigger picture
Prepress is one of eleven modules.
Quoting, scheduling, billing, customer portal, more. One operating layer on top of the tools you already pay for.
Frequently asked
Questions prepress operators ask.
Does this replace PitStop, Callas, or Phoenix?
SeedOS runs the prepress operations end-to-end. If your shop already pays for PitStop or Callas, the engine routes through your license instead of duplicating the bill. If you don't, the native path covers the same operations on the available capabilities. Phoenix is the one exception. True-shape nesting is external_required and we tell you upfront if your jobs need it.
What if your auto-fix gets it wrong on a file?
Every operation has a status (live / bounded / verifier on). Operators can preview, override, or reject any auto-applied fix. Nothing ships to the RIP without your approval rules being satisfied. The log is queryable.
Will Sol pick the wrong solution profile?
Profile detection is suggestion plus confirm. You can lock a profile to a folder, a customer, or a job type. We never auto-commit a profile change without showing the operator the diff.
How is this different from Enfocus Switch?
SeedOS sets up a working prepress flow in one conversation. Switch needs three weeks and an ECMAScript consultant to reach the same place. Switch is powerful and we respect it. If you outgrow us into something that genuinely needs that level of scripting, we will tell you.
Can my team override anything the engine does?
Always. The engine flags, suggests, queues. Your team reviews, edits, overrides. Nothing ships without your approval rules being satisfied.
What about edge cases like packaging die-cut, structural CAD, or multi-language batch?
Packaging die-cut is still Esko/ArtPro territory and we integrate. Structural CAD lives in Atlantis (our CAD/PDF engine), separate flow. Multi-language batch is on the roadmap (status: planned).
What doesn't this do well?
True-shape nesting and ganging belong to Tilia Phoenix or Griffin. We hand off when you license one. ICC color certification is hardware and audit territory, not software, so your RIP color path stays as is. 3D vehicle wrap surface conformance needs a 3D model. Sublimation ICC color shift is hardware calibration, not software. And rebuilding broken creative is your designer's job, not ours. We flag, suggest, never invent.
Still on the fence? Send a file we'll have to think about. We'll show you what we'd do with it.
Run a real file through it