crop marks

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   New Debenu user here.

I've been publishing books using PDF files for some years now, but the latest twist my publisher is throwing at me (after personnel changes there) is that they want me to add crop marks to my master files. In the past, I've presented the master files without margins or crop marks, and they did whatever they needed. Now, it seems, with the personnel changes, they've forgotten how... and I never knew how...because I didn't need to know.

So lets say I generate a page of data 180mm × 110mm in image size. I want to add a margin of 9mm fore edge and 11mm gutter, and 9mm top and bottom. I further want to add enough space for crop marks... is there a standard somewhere for the distance from the trim edge where the crop mark should start, how long it should be, what line weight, etc.?

And so where would I start to do this as I create my PDF file?  Some pages will be full-page graphics (no bleed required, though), others text, if the handling should be different.

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pdfer Members Profile Find Members Posts Beginner Joined: 13 Oct 15 Status: Offline Points: 3	Post Options Post Reply Quote pdfer Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: crop marks Posted: 30 Nov 15 at 10:31PM
	New Debenu user here. I've been publishing books using PDF files for some years now, but the latest twist my publisher is throwing at me (after personnel changes there) is that they want me to add crop marks to my master files. In the past, I've presented the master files without margins or crop marks, and they did whatever they needed. Now, it seems, with the personnel changes, they've forgotten how... and I never knew how...because I didn't need to know. So lets say I generate a page of data 180mm × 110mm in image size. I want to add a margin of 9mm fore edge and 11mm gutter, and 9mm top and bottom. I further want to add enough space for crop marks... is there a standard somewhere for the distance from the trim edge where the crop mark should start, how long it should be, what line weight, etc.? And so where would I start to do this as I create my PDF file? Some pages will be full-page graphics (no bleed required, though), others text, if the handling should be different.

martin.weigl Members Profile Find Members Posts Team Player Joined: 23 Feb 16 Location: Upper Austria Status: Offline Points: 27	Post Options Post Reply Quote martin.weigl Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 23 Feb 16 at 12:26PM
	Don't know if it's still interesting for you, but I had the same problem in here - adding a trimbox and cropmarks after the content has been drawn before. My solution (C#): Let' suppose, the variable trimBoxInches holds the width of the trim box iterate through the pages, add a new page for every page and capture the (first) page (which removes it, so the next page is always the first): IDictionary<int, int> pageIds = new Dictionary<int, int>(); int nrOfPages = this.Library.PageCount(); for (int page = 1; page <= nrOfPages; page++) { this.Library.NewPage(); this.Library.SelectPage(1); int pageId = this.Library.CapturePage(1); pageIds.Add(page, pageId); } Afterwards you can calculate the new dimensions of your pages and resize them: double pageWidth = this.Library.PageWidth(); double pageHeight = this.Library.PageHeight(); double newPageWidth = pageWidth + 2 * trimBoxInches; double newPageHeight = pageHeight + 2 * trimBoxInches; this.Library.SetPageDimensions(newPageWidth, newPageHeight); After this the captured pages can be redrawn again: foreach (KeyValuePair<int, int> entry in pageIds) { int pageNr = entry.Key; int pageId = entry.Value; this.Library.SelectPage(pageNr); this.Library.DrawCapturedPage(pageId, trimBoxInches, trimBoxInches + pageHeight, pageWidth, pageHeight); double trimBoxLength = trimBoxInches; // eventually you want to make the lines a little bit shorter here // prepare drawing this.Library.SetLineColorCMYK(0, 0, 0, 1); this.Library.SetLineWidth(...); // set the width of your cropmarks here // bottom left corner this.Library.DrawLine(0, trimBoxInches, trimBoxLength, trimBoxInches); this.Library.DrawLine(trimBoxInches, 0, trimBoxInches, trimBoxLength); // bottom right corner this.Library.DrawLine(newPageWidth, trimBoxInches, newPageWidth - trimBoxLength, trimBoxInches); this.Library.DrawLine(newPageWidth - trimBoxInches, 0, newPageWidth - trimBoxInches, trimBoxLength); // top right corner this.Library.DrawLine(newPageWidth, newPageHeight - trimBoxInches, newPageWidth - trimBoxLength, newPageHeight - trimBoxInches); this.Library.DrawLine(newPageWidth - trimBoxInches, newPageHeight, newPageWidth - trimBoxInches, newPageHeight - trimBoxLength); // top left corner this.Library.DrawLine(0, newPageHeight - trimBoxInches, trimBoxLength, newPageHeight - trimBoxInches); this.Library.DrawLine(trimBoxInches, newPageHeight, trimBoxInches, newPageHeight - trimBoxLength); } And, of course, you want to add a trimbox for the print office: this.Library.SetPageBox(4, trimBoxInches, trimBoxInches, pageWidth, pageHeight); Hth, Martin Edited by martin.weigl - 23 Feb 16 at 12:35PM

martin.weigl Members Profile Find Members Posts Team Player Joined: 23 Feb 16 Location: Upper Austria Status: Offline Points: 27	Post Options Post Reply Quote martin.weigl Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 23 Feb 16 at 12:31PM
	Add: "this.Library." is the reference you normally find as "QP.". Guess you might already have figured that out