Badia Printools 5

AUTOMATE YOUR INDESIGN OUTPUT

Printools 5 is a batch-print utility (among other things) for InDesign CS3. It runs as a separate program that’s activated under the File menu in InDesign. The program is very simple to use with many useful options.

The batch printing can handle up to 5,000 documents at once, so it should be robust enough for most users. When printing, it can use a preexisting print preset from InDesign. Of course, it does much more than simply printing—it can also create PDFs (using any presets that have been created), PostScript files (for older print-house workflows), and INX files (InDesign Interchange files can be used for trouble-shooting and for conversion to InDesign CS2).

Another useful feature is the ability to run preflight on the files. While not an all-inclusive preflight application, it does cover the basics. These include missing fonts and missing or modified links (it can update modified links automatically). Other useful preflight features include the ability to flag text overflows, nonprinting images, images below a user-determined effective resolution, and RGB images.
Other features include the ability to rename the output file to the RIP (for use with older RIPs that may choke on long file names); the ability to rename files being exported as PDF, PS, or INX; to set the page range desired to output; to run in simulation mode to run only the preflight options; and to create a print log from the preflight simulation.

While Printools 5 is currently for InDesign CS3, a CS4 version should be released soon. The biggest complaint I have with Printools is it’s available only for the Mac; it would be nice to have a Windows version too.—David Creamer

PRICE: $119.99
FROM: Badia Software
WEB: www.badiasoftware.com
RATING: 5

LAYERS VERDICT
HOT Easy way to batch print or PDF large numbers of files
NOT Macintosh only