Two-color, 8 3/4 x 11 1/2 file with one-quarter inch bleed on top, right and bottom (8 1/2 x 11 final size). I make a rectangle at 8.5 x 11 and make cropmarks, rip film to the imagesetter, and no cropmarks. what's the secret to getting them to show up? Shouldn't they at least be on the black plate?

TIA,

Jeff

they never have been (on the film) with any version of illus...you have to manually draw them over the top of the ones that illus shows...however...you can use 'printers marks' from the print dialog...sometimes they show up...just a 'minor' limitation of illus....thats why most folks amke an eps and then place it in a layout program...add the marks there

Boy, that doesn't sound right. If they print in the composite, what makes them disappear at RIP? Seems pointless to create them at all, since the only purpose of a crop mark is to show where to crop a page after it's been printed. I never send Illustrator files to be RIPped, so I've never run into this.

I can get the crop marks to show up and print when I print separations from an ai .eps imported into Quark, so I don't know why it shouldn't RIP directly from ai. But one thing I've noticed is that ai doesn't recognize that there's black unless there's something in the file other than the crop marks that are colored black. If the crop marks are the only black item, ai doesn't "see" them and create a plate for them. But if there's any other black anywhere on the file, it will generate a black plate for the file, which seems to include the crop marks in my tests. But like I said, I haven't sent files to a high-end RIP this way, so I'm not sure what they'd do.

just a 'minor' limitation of illus...


I'll say.

Yes, there is black in the file (in addition to the crop marks) and one other PMS color. I just created my own ticks using the registration color. I usually do use the printers marks, but in this case the bleed only goes to three sides, (non-bleed side is the spine of a saddle-stitched cover)...

Thanks,

J.

john_kallios

Object>CropArea(Mark)>Make is a often misunderstood tool.

For what you are after PS1, set the crop area(marks), the print and turn on the print dialogue's crop marks and bleed setting. You will find the the marks are based upon the CropArea(Mark) dimension and not the artboard.

Think of it as overiding the artboard dimension.

Now the rules change when saving to eps.

The marks are actually in the eps. But, the eps image acts differently based upon what application it is placed into.

Xpress will use the bounding area of the elements.

Indesign will use the crop area dimension but will contain the extra image that is past the crop marks. (though InDesign has a screen preview issue when low res preview is used)

It is not a limitation of the feature. It is just misunderstood.

You can always use Filter>Create>Trim Marks (I do not like them though)

John,

Thanks for the clarification. I burned some film this morning and it worked like a charm --I'll probably use this feature more often now-- :-)

Jeff

steve_mcguire

I use "Object>CropArea(Mark)>Make" for exporting PDFs and bitmaps that include elements that lie outside the artboard.

Let's say I have an 8.5x11 document with a large photo that goes beyond the artboard boundary. If I want to make a PDF of this document that is exactly 8.5x11 I will need to use the "Make Crop Area" command, or it will include the bounding area of the photo outside the artboard (even if I mask the photo).

Make Crop Area is also essential when exporting Web graphics and other bitmaps.

I like to use "Filter>Create>Trim Marks" for print jobs that have multiple trim areas on one document (like a set of cards that are 3-up), and for large-format printing where separations are not needed, but trimming is.