We examined the pressure effects on petroleum pitch synthesis by using open and closed reaction systems. The pressure effects that occur during the pitch synthesis were investigated in three pressure systems: a closed system of high pressure and two open systems under either an atmosphere or vacuum. A thermal reaction in the closed system led to the high product yield of a pitch by suppressing the release of light components in pyrolysis fuel oil. Atmospheric treatment mainly enhanced the polymerization degree of the pitch via conden-sation and a polymerization reaction. Vacuum treatment results in a softening point increase due to the removal of components with low molecular weights. To utilize such characteristic effects of system pressure during pitch preparations, we proposed a method for synthesizing cost-competitive pitch precursors for carbon materials. The first step is to increase product yield by using a closed system; the second step is to increase the degree of polymerization toward the desired molecular distribution, followed by the use of vacuum treatment to ad-just softening points. Thus, we obtained an experimental quinoline insolubles-free pitch of product yield over 45% with softening points of approximately 130°C. The proposed method shows the possibility to prepare cost-competitive pitch precursors for carbon materials by enhancing product yield and other properties.