Indesign Export PDF Frame Option?

thelob · 02-11-2009, 03:29 PM

I'm outputting to pdf from within Idesign CS3. Is there a way to place a frame around the page offset by 2mm.

Basically I need a pdf with 3mm bleed, and instead of crop marks a hairline frame around so we know where to cut.

I know this can be done manually and templates set up going forward but need to be able to do this for older jobs. If I ask people to draw a frame before export there will be a mass walk out

Thanks in advance

**Craig B** · 02-11-2009, 03:53 PM

Hmm, well, sort of.

If you have the full acrobat, the first thing to do is go to advanced/print production/add printer marks ... from there add trim marks ... I'm not sure of an easy way to add a thin hairline around the edge of the document ... but I'm not sure why trim marks wouldn't work for you.

Then, go to advanced/print production/crop pages then under "change paper size" click on the "custom" radio button and add 6 mm to your initial width and height ... and that will add your bleed ... but, that doesn't actually bleed any art, it just adds a 3mm white bleed around you doc with the crop marks.

I suppose if you don't want trim marks, and you're feeling adventurous you could go to tools/comment and markup/rectangle tool, and draw a rectangle to match the page size prior to doing crop pages, and then set the properties of that triangle to whatever color and width you want for the stroke ... but that's just for one page ... you'd have to copy and paste it onto each page.

OR ... you could use document/background/add or document/watermark/add and choose from source where you've created a separate PDF of just your hairline rectangle and then position it 3 mm in form top and left. (which may work if all of your documents tend to be one size, or even if you use 4 or 5 sizes and just create separate hairline rectangle PDFs for each size so that you can apply them accordingly.

jimking · 02-11-2009, 04:01 PM

Am I reading this correctly-you want a rule around your trim instead of crop marks? If this is the case, think twice. If the rule or stroke is exactly where the trim is you'll have some of the stroke moving in and out of your image area. You'll need to trim just inside of the stroke, making the trim slightly smaller than its intended size.

**Craig B** · 02-11-2009, 04:07 PM

That's why I recommended sticking with crop marks. If not, make your hairline trim box a little bigger than your document size.

jimking · 02-11-2009, 04:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Craig B

That's why I recommended sticking with crop marks. If not, make your hairline trim box a little bigger than your document size.

Crop marks are offset out of the way so that one can trim for exact size with out the marks popping up in the image area, what a great idea. This bridge was crossed a hundred or so years ago.

thelob · 02-11-2009, 05:10 PM

Thanks for the replies.

I want the frame offset a few mm inside the bleed.

It's basically for poster printing. We use javelins to cut the posters and once you cut one edge you obviously lose your crops (if its a poster with a white background). Needed them offset so they would be trimmed a few mm inside the frame.

I would obviously use offset crop marks for all other jobs

**garricks** · 02-11-2009, 11:53 PM

Before I post a lengthy explanation here, please clarify: You have the InDy documents, need to add a hairline that's 2mm per side larger than the document, then export to PDF for print? Or you only have PDFs to work with?

thelob · 02-12-2009, 08:16 AM

I have the indesign docs. I'm trying to produce preset pdf export settings for all designers within company to send artwork out for large format print.

I can obviously manually produce the frame but getting everyone to do this without fail could be tricky. Going forward I can set templates up but would prefer it to be a setting within the export function, which it looks like it isn't.

**garricks** · 02-12-2009, 12:22 PM

OK, I get it now. I think what you need is a script that will add the bleed @ 3mm all around, create a box the size of the page, expand that box 2mm in every direction and set the box stroke to .5 pt. I'm not all that great at scripting but there are some very gifted and generous folks over at the Adobe site, in the scripting forum. You might give them a shout.