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J
JKA@4153
Inspiring
November 27, 2008
Question

Crop Marks don't appear in pdf (Illustrator CS4)

  • November 27, 2008
  • 18 replies
  • 33692 views
Hi everyone,

I've used the crop marks command (under the effects menu) on a rectangle that is the size of the artboard. I then created a pdf of the document and made sure there was enough bleed to encompass these crop marks, ie. 20mm all round. When I open up the pdf though no crop marks appear.

Can someone tell me why this is happening?

Appreciate any help.
    This topic has been closed for replies.

    18 replies

    cmyck
    cmyck
    Inspiring
    May 19, 2010

    Glad it was helpful.

    Lo and behold! The bug is fixed in CS5. Finally.

    cmyck
    cmyck
    Inspiring
    August 14, 2009

    Everybody would benefit if Adobe had some serious competition.

    They probably know very well how bad their reputation for fast and sleek apps is.

    But they don't bother to react, since they own the market. As long as the cashflow is in the green, investors don't care.

    This will backfire eventually.

    RogerPaine
    RogerPaine
    Participating Frequently
    August 14, 2009

    I don't experience any of the above: I add bleed and crops and other stuff in the bleed area, save pdf, open in acrobat and its all there - The only weird thing is that if I put trims on in acro thay trim to the bleed area

    cmyck
    cmyck
    Inspiring
    August 14, 2009

    You most likely set the bleed in the document settings. And then you woulnd't experience the problem.

    It only occurs if you set the bleed in the output settings during a save (save as PDF) [without having set it in the document settings]

    I just confirmed the bug again in version 14.0.0.

    Please, double check before you post contradicting findings. It confuses people.

    cmyck
    cmyck
    Inspiring
    March 16, 2009
    I don't get it. I have the exact same problem. And the answer is simple: It's a bug.
    CS3 had the same issue and Adobe didn't deem it necessary to fix it for CS4.

    Steps to repro:
    1) create a document (A4)
    2) add your crop marks, either by hand or using the effect (you can expand them).
    3) or add some folding marks, e.g. use the registration color for them
    4) try to output a PDF with those marks showing...
    4.1) choose save a copy and choose PDF
    4.2) under marks and bleeds set the bleeds for all sides to 25mm (or whatever)
    4.3) save it
    When you open the document you'll notice that those crop marks or folding marks are missing.

    In CS4 you can fix that problem. Open Document Setup and set the bleed for the document to 25mm. Try saving it as PDF again. Result: crop marks or folding marks are there.

    Someone please give me one single reason why this isn't FUBAR.
    S
    s_gm
    Participant
    June 10, 2009

    Hi cmyck,

    I just lost several hours trying to fix this problem. Your fix just saved my day. Thank you! And I agree that this is indeed a bug. Setting the bleed in "Save a Copy" as PDF should behave the same as setting the bleed in "Document Setup".

    Cheers,

    Bernhard

    cmyck
    cmyck
    Inspiring
    August 7, 2009

    Wow, I'm glad someone found it useful.

    W
    Wade S Zimmerman
    Participating Frequently
    January 14, 2009
    Dario

    All Caps are considered shouting on the web. Unlock the Cap Lock.

    Do you want define an artboard which will have trim marks if you wish it to?
    _
    _DARIO_IACOBO_
    Participant
    January 13, 2009
    HOW DO YOU DO THE TRIM MARKS, NOT CROP MARKS IN ILLUSTRATOR CS4. WITH THE CROP MARKS, YOU CANNOT MOVE IT AROUND WITH THE OBJECT, BUT WITH THE TRIM MARKS YOU CAN, SO I WOULD I FIND THE TRIM MARKS OPTION IN CS4? THANKS
    W
    Wade S Zimmerman
    Participating Frequently
    November 29, 2008
    You're welcome and it i better I think this way. use the artboards for sizing art documents nd trimming with trim marks use crop marks as crop marks.

    have a great day.
    J
    JKA@4153Author
    Inspiring
    November 28, 2008
    Okay I got it now. Thanks so much.
    W
    Wade S Zimmerman
    Participating Frequently
    November 28, 2008
    Oh you don't want an artboard you want two cropped areas so you can print two up.

    Make to rectangles as you did before go to Effects>Crop Marks.

    If you want to change anything about the crop marks since they are an effect Expand the Appearance and turn them into real art. And Voila!

    All fixed!

    Nothing has really changed.
    _
    _Dennis_Burnham_
    Participant
    November 28, 2008
    Yes, there is a difference between crop marks and trim marks and there was a time not so long ago when Illustrator was capable of both. Now, it can't do them properly. The trim mark feature is either gone or broken depending on how you look at it.

    In my view, it's broken and needs to be fixed.

    If you make a bounding box to represent an area, let's say a rectangular business card and you want to show front and back beside each other on the same art board, you can't convert your rectangle to a guide because your crop marks vanish. You also can no longer select them to apply colors, adjust position, drag duplicates for things like fold lines you might want to indicate.

    Multiple artboards is a cool new feature but it is not an excuse to remove and break the crop/trim marks command. If you try to memorize the action in CS3 and import it into CS 4, you can't.
    W
    Wade S Zimmerman
    Participating Frequently
    November 28, 2008
    yes you are missing something to the right of the bleed settings are Show Marks options, check that and then select Trim Marks.

    Specifying bleed is one thing directing Illustrator to also show the trim marks re two different things, there may be reasons to show the bleed and not the trim marks (crop marks)

    They are actually trim marks even though most of us cal them crop marks.

    You should be fine now.
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