problem with cut lines after printing...

[MT89_]

Hello

I'm new to inDesign and i need help

I work with my a client who is a publisher and I'm not in touch with the pressman at all.

I created a book with puzzle-shaped cut-line/die-lines and I was told to set the bleed to 10 mm which i did after creating the document and it seems the bleed is outside the doc which i didn't notice before (picture below)

here's my cut line (for two spread page): (created with illustrator)

I placed the cut-lines where I exactly wanted the documented to be cut. then I export the pdf with "all printers mark" "use document bleed setting" and "Slug area" checked. (picture below is the exported PDF (im not sure if the area outside the red square is bleed area or slug area!))

one of my question is: does the area outside the red square print?

because the prints are all done and now they need to cut it and the pressman called and said if we apply the cutting a part of texts are also gonna cut!!! what did i do wrong?

and what can i do now to prevent the cutting of the elements inside the document ?

Any help would be much appreciated

[vinny38]

I personally don't see anything wrong in your document, nor what text could be cut!

As you expect, the blue line is where printer will cut, and there is absolutely no element overlapping this diecut...

Maybe the problem stands on another page? Could you share your PDF so we could have a look?

[MT89_]

thank you for the repy

other pages are the same and texts are far away from the cut lines.

the first page is  full of texts:

Exported PDF:

In Indesign:

at first I sent the PDF with cut-lines inside for print but pressman told me to remove the cut-lines (although the cut-lines are overprinted and spot colors) and then send them the PDF without the outlines and I sent the Ai Cut-line file separately.

My concern is that the area outside the red square is slug area printers only print the area inside the red square. the cutter needs 10 mm bleed so if this happened then my work is ruined!

[vinny38]

Really hard to tell...

Maybe the printer uses a checking system like Pitstop that did spot elements that are inside the 10mm security area, like this one:

Or (bad guess): you have text wrapping around objects that were on the diecut layer...

Any chance you can meet him and check the printings?

Did you get Proofs as well?

[MT89_]

thank you but that's the text wrap.

The blue lines are the cut-lines

[vinny38]

Yes I understand that, but I meant there is theoretically a possibility that the circle used for the wrapping was placed on the diecut layer, and that the diecut layer was set as "no wrapping when hidden".

It's a lot of "if", so it's not likely to be the reason, but it's possible.

Another possibility is that you placed the diecut.ai at more than 100% in InDesign.

Meaning the original Illustrator file is smaller than it's supposed to be.

You can check this out too...

[winterm]

vinny38  wrote

Another possibility is that you placed the diecut.ai at more than 100% in InDesign.

Oh yes, and this is one of the several reasons I usually advocate keeping artwork and custom die-cut in a single file... just as OP did initially.

So there is a wrongly set bleed. However, background is pretty plain, helpful printers sometimes fix this kind of quirks themselves...

It's still a mystery about text. If I understand correctly vinny's suggestion, may it be a printer has a somewhat 'broken' layout, and OP/printer now talk about different things?

[winterm]

The pressman should know how to deal with spot color overprinted cut-line... it's ok to keep it in a single pdf, you did it well.

However, here's some problem with the bleeds. Bleed in your Document Setup is set to zero. Compare how it looks in ID and exported pdf. You should change it to the value you expanded red background over the page, or use that value in Export PDF dialog, instead of "use document bleed setting". And don't bother with the Slug! It's for different purposes.

[MT89_]

That's my main concern.

My main question is everything which is exported to the PDF gonna be printed or only areas inside the red lines? (picture below is one page from an exported PDF)

[winterm]

Without custom cut-lines everything outside red lines will be cut. If you have colored background (as in your 2nd screenshot), that color must bleed outside those lines.

Now you have custom cut-line (blue). So your red background must bleed outside that. Now it does in your ID doc but not in exported PDF. It just touches the line, that's not enough:

It should be fixed as described in the previous post.

[winterm]

It could look even something like this:

[MT89_]

yes there was a mistake in bleed setting but unfortunately the printing is done and they telling me something about texts being cut by my custom puzzle-shaped cut-lines.

anyway did I export it the right way? i export it by checking the pages (instead of spread)..

[vinny38]

Good point!

Unfortunately OP said the printing was done already...

[winterm]

Or... just a wild guess: your pressman is very busy and must be mistakenly talking to you about some different project... since your's is perfectly ok, like vinny already said.

BTW, no need to bother with Slug area here. The fact you checked it won't do any harm, though.

[MT89_]

Thanks for being perceptive, I appreciated it.

The cut-line file which I created with Ai was so exact in size when I placed it in InDesign (by just double clicked the file in the corner of the page) it fit perfectly, so I don't think this was the problem, but I sent them the .eps file instead of .ai ! I'm not sure maybe changing the format messed it all up..!

[winterm]

For future reference: eps is an obsolete format nowadays, however it must be ok in this particular case. But why messing different formats? All-in-one pdf frightens them? Then send two, both with printer marks to be sure everything will be aligned properly on the printer side:

AIO, should be good to go:

Or,

Artwork only:

plus, Cutting line only:

However, your main concern now, what's wrong with the text? I think, we're all out of a fresh ideas here, you should contact the printer.