Crop marks are HUGE when saving as a pdf for print...

[all signsa7491534]

Hello all,

I work in signage and we use Illustrator everyday for large format printing.

My problem is that now and then, when saving the documents as a pdf, the crop marks and bleeds are HUGE. This doesn't happen everytime and is becoming very frustrating.

Can anyone help with this please?

[Doug A Roberts]

What size are these documents?

[all signsa7491534]

Hello there,

The largest print in this document is 475mm x 670mm.

Oddly, I have no problems a lot of the time with large sizes, it's just quite sporadic.

Thanks.

[Doug A Roberts]

Can you reproduce this reliably, i.e. create a new document from scratch and end up with crop marks like this? If so, please list the steps.

[all signsa7491534]

Yes...

Create new document

Some files may have multiple artboards within them.

Some artboards can be up to 2440mm x 1220mm

File/save as/pdf/add bleed and crop marks/use document bleeds/save

[Doug A Roberts]

I created a document with four artboards, two 2440 x 1220, one 1220 x 1220 and one 475 x 670 mm. Crop marks look normal in Acrobat.

Can you shate an example file?

[all signsa7491534]

Of course, please find the original ai and then print pdf attached, thank you.

[Monika Gause]

Is that perhaps a large canvas document?

[Doug A Roberts]

I see ~19 mm crop marks in that PDF in both Acrobat and Illustrator. Is that wrong?

[all signsa7491534]

I normally use around 10mm for larger sizes on signs and 5mm on smaller. 

[all signsa7491534]

Sorry I uploaded the wrong file!

Please find it attached. Thanks again for your help here.

[Doug A Roberts]

Right, so it is a large canvas document (although it doesn't appear to need to be).

Printer's marks appear to not scale correctly when using large canvas documents. I guess this is another bug with them.

[Met1]

I stopped using built in crops a while ago, the script MakeCropMarksAI by Sergey Anosov
is available at https://sites.google.com/site/dtpscripting

[TheGrid]

I got the same issue. It's so annoying! Didn't find a solution yet.. It's seems that if you choose to export just one of the artboads, you'll see just one artbord in acrobat but when you open it in illustrator, you'll still see the others(you didn't wanted to export) too.. 

[Ton Frederiks]

Turn off Illustrator Editing Capabilities to avoid embedding the entire Illustrator file.

[Katiefergs]

Hello, 

Did you find a solution to this? As the exact same thing is happening to me, when I save with Printers marks and bleeds they are saving huge and I'm not doing anything different to any other time I've saved them like this? 

Please see attached photo, 

Thanks in advance! 

[Doug A Roberts]

Was this file created in a large canvas document (i.e. one with a canvas size greater than 5780 mm square)?

[Brian Grimming]

this is still an issue as of 7-14-2023...  It is definitely related to using the oversized canvas option in Illustrator, I have two workarounds that I use to solve this problem when I must design with the oversized canvas option in Illustrator. If I can not transfer the designed artwork in sections to a standard canvas-sized illustrator document, I place the PDF with huge crop marks into a multi-page Indesign document you will need to adjust the scaling one more time, but you will get a PDF file with normal crop marks as an end result... I find the only issues I have ever run into doing this is once in a while an issue arises with gradients depending on how they are created or how they are interpreted and the other issue is placed images, if they are not of the highest image quality some interpretation issues may arise, so proceed at you own risque and good luck

[kathyv29344124]

clearly adobe doesn't care about this issue!!  I have tried new documents, tried copy/paste artbords to new files, new files and copy/paste artwork Doesn't seem to matter how many artboards. Tried single large artboards, single smaller artboards. Seems taht once it starts, I can't figure out how to get rid of them. Deleted AI preferences, doesn't help, rebooting doesn't help. Will now have to try to uninstall and re-install AI completely. Its very very frustrating no attention given to this. Its a waste of our work time, our media etc. 

[Monika Gause]

Is that a Large Canvas Document?

[Anubhav M]

Hello @kathyv29344124,

I'm sorry to hear about your experience. Would you mind sharing some more details, like the exact version of the OS/Illustrator, a public link to a sample file after uploading it to Dropbox/Google Drive/etc., and a screen recording of your entire workflow and the problem (https://adobe.ly/3AboUHF), so we can investigate this further?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,

Anubhav

[NimaReklame]

I am still, here in mid 2025 having this annoying propblem. It always appears in large canvas documents. Right now, I am creating banner files, that are more than 12 meters long, and when I export to pdf, the cropmarks are HUGE, and take up WAY to much space around the document. Could you pleaaaase fix it:) It is embarassing to forward these files to the produkction company. And I have to manually resize the cropmarks. That is so counterproductive!

[Ton Frederiks]

It is caused by a large canvas document. The problem remains when you create a new file, it remembers the last created filesize and your new document becomes a large canvas document too.

See https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447-illustrator-desktop-bugs/suggestions/44115801-bug-me...

And for info about Large Canvas documents.:

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/large-sized-artwork.html

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @all signsa7491534 & NimaReklame, 

Thanks for bringing this up. Could you please confirm the exact version of Adobe Illustrator you're using, along with the details of your operating system?

Also, it would be really helpful if you could share a screen recording showing the issue, specifically the difference between how the file looks in Illustrator and how it appears in the exported PDF. Please include the export settings used during the PDF creation in the recording as well.

Additionally, if possible, please share a sample file where you're seeing this behavior, so we can investigate it further with the team.

Looking forward to your update!

Abhishek