Software for the print industry
LockStep Tools · commercial print
LockStepPDF is a subscription: one recipe from Assets through imposition, preflight, and hot folders. LockStepOCR is a free OCR engine. LockStepLabel is under development and will be a one-time purchase.
The line
LockStepPDF is a subscription. LockStepOCR is free. LockStepLabel is under development and will be a one-time purchase. No download and nothing to buy for Label yet.
Subscription
One recipe: Assets, page setup, Applied Steps, preflight, and three hot folders. Grid, Booklet, bleed, color, and cutter marks are lines on that stack. Preflight can route pass, hold, and fail.
Free
Three pipelines. Each has a watch folder and an output folder. Output is a searchable PDF at the original page size. The source file is left in the watch folder.
Under development · not for sale yet
Under development. No installer, no price, and no buy button. When it ships, a one-time purchase. Aimed at label imposition: finished size, gutter, and sheet. No finished build.
Job path
Page setup, then Applied Steps, then three pipelines. Production folders take a copy of the saved file.
Assets is the loaded job. Later tools read that list. Files sit on the prepress PC or the shop server.
Page controls edit the highlighted pages. Add to recipe stores them as one Page setup line.
Grow bleed, then Grid or Booklet, then cutter marks. Booklet creep is the thickness of one sheet. The cover does not shift.
Three pipelines. Each has an input, an output, and that recipe. Preflight can route pass, hold, and fail.
Workflow
Assets, page setup, Applied Steps, preflight, hot folders, then production destinations. Same order on the desk and on an unattended pipeline. Control detail is on the LockStepPDF page.
Assets is the loaded job. Resize, Crop, Bleed, Grid, Booklet, Cutter, Rotate, Color, Mail Merge, and preflight read that list. Each page shows its size. Color pages are labeled Color, Pagemix, or Colormix. Selection covers every page, fronts, backs, one size, or a property match. Pages can move into another PDF. Clearing the asset list leaves the recipe in place.
Page boxes: leave MediaBox, CropBox, TrimBox, and the bleed box, set CropBox to TrimBox so a viewer hides the bleed, or clip to trim and drop the extra margin. When the art already includes bleed, Grid, Booklet, and marks step on finished trim, not the bleed box. Gutter of zero: trims touch, bleed hangs into the gutter, crop marks sit on the trim.
Page controls edit the highlighted pages, including a selection that spans files. The file on disk is unchanged until save. Color, crop, bleed, resize, and rotate can be stored before imposition. Resize places from a 3 by 3 anchor with horizontal and vertical offsets, and keeps artwork size unless stretch is on. Rotate is 90, 180, or 270. A quarter turn swaps width and height. Fronts and backs can rotate independently. Blank inserts an empty page for a duplex or booklet back. Delete removes the highlighted page from the working file.
Add to recipe writes those edits as one Page setup line. On the next run that line applies to the files loaded at run time. Arrange is page order: reorder, rotate, recolor, then write the order back. Join combines the loaded PDFs. Split writes each page as its own PDF.
Applied Steps is the stack. Add appends a line. Overwrite replaces the selected line. Click a line to reopen the tool. Working order: grow bleed, then impose, then cutter marks. Convert color before preflight.
Grow bleed is for art with no bleed. Quick grow scales the page. Edge extend mirrors or stretches the outer edge. The grown page keeps a TrimBox, so Grid and Booklet pack on finished size. Grid is step-and-repeat: rows and columns, or auto max-fit, with gutters, margins, and a 3 by 3 anchor. Booklet is saddle-stitch. Creep is the thickness of one sheet. The cover does not shift. Each sheet inside adds that amount again. Cutter marks target every page, fronts, or backs, for a collator or cutter. Folds are a monitor guide, not a production step. Mail merge is the VDP line on the same recipe: a template PDF plus CSV, Excel, or ODS. The saved recipe holds the template, so a hot folder can receive only the spreadsheet.
Profiles are editable. Built-in starts: Standard Digital Press, Commercial Sheetfed, and Soft Proof. Checks: image resolution, embedded fonts, trim and bleed boxes, RGB, hairline strokes, total CMYK ink, transparency, overprint, and JPEG 2000. Each check can fail, hold, or be ignored. The report is readable without a paid license. JSON or PDF export, and jump-to-fix from a finding, are Pro.
Color on the recipe runs before that check. Conversions: original, grayscale, black and white, sepia, CMYK, or RGB. Raster DPI: 300, 400, 600, or 1200. CMYK includes gray-component replacement, a total-ink limit, and per-channel trim.
Three prepress pipelines. Each has an input, an output, and a saved recipe. One watcher runs every pipeline that is filled in. With preflight on the hot folder, pass, hold, and fail can route to different folders.
Three OCR watch folders sit apart from those pipelines. A file there becomes a searchable PDF at the original page size. Settings are language, a filename prefix or suffix, and a post step that can include email. That path does not impose. LockStepOCR 2.4 is the free standalone engine, with its own three pipelines and its own installer.
Extra folders named on the recipe. The save path is unchanged, and a copy is written to each selected folder. The recipe file stores Applied Steps, page setup, the unit, and those folders.
LockStepPDF 3.54 is a subscription. The price, the billing period, and the installer are not published here. It is not free forever, and it is not a one-time purchase. LockStepLabel is under development for label imposition: finished size, gutter, and sheet. No installer, no price, and no buy button. One-time purchase when it ships.
Operating notes
LockStepPDF and LockStepOCR run on Windows. No upload, no account, no shared file-size cap.
Page setup, Applied Steps, the unit, and the production folders, saved as one file. The next job loads that list.
LockStepOCR is free. Three pipelines write a searchable PDF at the original page size. LockStepPDF’s OCR folders are a separate path and do not impose.
darren@locksteptools.com
The desk
Build the recipe on the desk. Three hot folders each take an input, an output, and that recipe. Preflight can route pass, hold, and fail. Page tools and the prepress stack are on the LockStepPDF page.