Adding fold marks to flat pieces

[_Diane_King_]

Is there a way in Indesign CS3 to indicate a fold so that when you export with crops and bleeds, there is a registration mark indicating a fold? I frequently do two-sided flyers with off-center folds. I can't do them as page spreads because the pages would be different sizes, but since I upload press-ready PDFs to my printer, it would be nice to have registration marks indicating where the fold should be on each side. Any ideas?

[_Jeffrey_Smith_]

Quoted from Sandee in this thread

>I'm the one trying to "teach" them how to do it properly.

And here is Sandee's advice to Chris in the Yellow Page Ad thread, that he may have to use Illustrator and convert fonts to outlines, which many may consider a non standard method of supplying a file...

>However, I don't doubt that they have very archaic workflows. It's a field filled with very old automation workflows. And as much as I don't like the idea, you may have to follow their advice.

So what's it going to be... Teach these students the proper standard way. Or possibly... in this crazy business we call print and graphic arts, that there may never be a standard way, that communication may be the most valuable tool that you learn...

[Sandee Cohen]

> Quoted from Sandee in this thread

Jeffrey,

I've had a really bad morning and don't wish to get into this debate with you.

Whatever you want to believe of me is correct.

[_Jeffrey_Smith_]

>Whatever you want to believe of me is correct.

Sandee, this comment makes me believe you think my post was intended as a personal attack or criticizing your teaching ability, which it was not intended that way. However this excerpt from your previous post...

>My students come in with stories of how their print shops have told them to jump through amazing hoops trying to accomodate the print shops antiquated workflows.

...implies [or at least my intrepretation] that the printer is mostly at fault for allowing bad practices in today's printing world. And in a lot of cases, that is completely true. But the reality for any student entering this field, you may have to make integrity compromises to eventually and successfully complete a print project.

[Mr. Met]

>you may have to make integrity compromises to eventually and successfully complete a print project.

you may have to make integrity compromises a lot to eventually and successfully complete a print project.

Fixed it for you.

Obviously one should keep to a standard for workflow consistency. But the weirdest damn files will come your way for sure.

Sandee: no one's attacking you. And as well as you teach, a rookie will always be a rookie when entering a working environment.

[_peterpica_]

I think tradition has dashed (hyphened?) lines as perfs, not folds. Folds used to be indicated in a nonprinting marginal area as solid lines on paper mechanicals. In any event, I use spot colors to indicate these so printer knows not to output when printing cymk files when customer wants to see folds in a critical image or text area. Also, you can add non-printing data outside trim size & bleeds but in a slug area. No need to fool around with changing document sizes.

The InD plugin "Cropster" does this fairly well, but is somewhat pricey for this type of stuff that you can build your own templates.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

Using the Slug area for fold lines works fine. What problems have there been with that option (other than remembering to export with bleed and slug areas on)?