Learn in this article,
- which requirements must be met for this Fixup and
- how to apply the Fixup.
1. Introduction
The Fixup Clip Print Item with Additional Bleed is available in the Workflow. The aim of this Fixup is to mask the Print Item at a defined distance inside or outside along an existing Dieline.
2. General
Use this Fixup to clip the Print Item to the most necessary Bleed and thus reduce ink costs. Furthermore, clip Print Items so that they can be imposed i.e. nested in an Imposition.
This Fixup is available in the footer of the Document Information and User-defined Fields area in the Print Data tab of an Article, Production Job or Order or in the Data Preparation tab.
3. Fixup Description
With this Fixup, the Print Item can be clipped along the Dieline at the defined distance. The TrimBox is set to the Dieline and the BleedBox to the selected distance. When executing the Fixups, the media and CropBox are also set to the size of the BleedBox.
3.1. Requirements and Functionality
In order for this Fixup to function correctly, the following requirements must be met:
- An Dieline exists in the Print Item as a Spot Color.
- Dielines, e.g. for handles, can be present in the Print Item.
- Dielines should be a continuous path. A filled area can still be masked, depending on the option selected.
- The Dieline does not need to be set up as a Technical Color system-wide, as the user can apply this Fixup to all other Spot Colors as well.
- The Dieline should be set to overprint. A Dieline that is set to knockout, is not set to overprint by this Fixup.
- The Bleed for the Print Item exists already.
Figure 1: The Clip Print Item with Additional Bleed Fixup dialog.
When clipping a Print Item you can choose from the following options:
- Template [1] – settings that are selected in this dialog can be saved as template and then applied to other Articles/Print Items.
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Clip at [2] – There are two options to choose from, depending on the way the Dieline was created.
- Dieline (solid/dashed/dotted) – This option must be selected when the Dieline is created as a classic contour, regardless of whether it is solid, dotted or dashed. The TrimBox is created in the center of the Dieline; line widths are therefore irrelevant.
- Page Content or solid Dieline – This option must be selected when the Dieline was created as fill and not as a stroke. In the case of a dashed or dotted Dieline, the gaps in the line will also be clipped. Note that in the case of a fill, the TrimBox would be set to the outer position of the fill itself.
- Outside only [3] – By activating the Outside only, only the outer most Dieline will be used; therefore Dielines that make break away cuts inside the outside Dieline will not be clipped. Note that this option is available only if From Vector Paths is selected in the Mask option.
- Spot Color [4] – Select the Spot Color name to be clipped.
- Bleed [5] – Enter a value to specify the amount of Bleed that should be applied to the Dieline. For the Variable Content [6] select the desired placeholder - databank field or user-defined field - from which the value for the Bleed should be retrieved.
3.2. Before/After
The output file "Clip_Print_Item_Start.pdf" contains the Dieline "CutContour" that should be used for clipping.
- The areas of the Print Item that should be printed extend far beyond the required Bleed.
- All Page Boxes are in the same position, the TrimBox does not describe the exact size of the Bleed.
Clip the Print Item should with a distance of 3 mm and place TrimBox on the position of the Dieline. The BleedBox should be placed on the clipped area as well as the MediaBox and CropBox.
The corrected version "Clip_Print_Item_End.pdf" is created by executing the Fixup. Well done, you have removed a lot of printing area and saved a lot of ink costs!
Figure 2: Comparing the files before and after applying the Fixup.
Article update: Version 1.17.1 - 04/2024