Crop Marks

[sallybode]

Ask the printer what their preference is. They have most likely a template to put your business card in and may prefer to do their own imposition. The reason I say this isn't to discourage you from doing it, but the printer's template is set up plotted from the x and y axis and offset from the paper edge for the exact gripper margin, so that next when it goes to the trimming operation, the spacing of the slitter is normally set to a precise gap and it is much faster for them to do it this way.

They can also give you a template upon which to return your artwork, that keeps you both happy.

I do things by the numbers because I work for a printer and I don't have to be close, I have to be on the money, so I use my x and y coordinants and I use the transform palette to exactly place my artwork duplications. I normally do this with the business card outlined to the actual trim (2" x 3.5"). I can use the crop marks from OberonPlace.com, their script works really well. However, you only need crop marks top and bottom if they are using a slitter. Our slitter trims out a 1/16" between business cards. But other brands may eat more or may actually use artwork butted up to each other's final trim if there is no bleed.

Going to the printer and talking to their graphic artist is really the best way, that way you have no problems when it comes to print whatsoever. And if you are using spot color, they will have swatches you can pick between, they will also be able to show you the difference in color from what is printed on matte vs. glossy or rather "coated" paper.

Paper costs money, so maximizing your imposition to give you 12 out it best. But since printers try to be efficient so that their personnel know how to handle each job, they try to make it as similar to the last job, it cuts down on mistakes. This is one of the best reasons to use a template. If they have to rerun your job, you won't be getting it on time.

Using scripts and dialogue boxes to exactly place and duplicate artwork is the key to being accurate.

You'd be surprised how often I get in a business card that someone laid out and it isn't even the correct height and width.

I have found it is most useful to put up the Transform Palette. Because the Transform palette shows many of the same options, it may seem redundant but it shows things the property doesn't because the Property bar changes, the Transform bar remains happily the same. So as not to be confused, I have dragged it and docked it at the bottom of my Window. You can turn it on in Options/Customization, Command Bars.

On the Transform palette you have your x and y coordinants. You also have the exact height and width of anything, including text. How often do you need to make text a certain width in measurement, not exactly a point size, it has to fit or you have to match and replace some damaged existing text, this is the way to do it. Your boss tells you to make the whole thing 10% smaller because their isn't enough gripper. By typing in 90% you have it right then and no fancy calculating height and width. If you pay attention to what this bar reads you can learn alot about your document that is useful to you. You can also use it to change your objects size disproportionally by opening or closing the lock beside it. You can rotate with it. And by either using "ctrl d" or "ctrl r" in X3, do most of the functions of the Transform Docker. You can also change things by percent. Back before computers, artists had to calculate the percent of a photographic reduction. And for this I used a reduction wheel, two circled joined in the middel with a rivet with round rulers and a percentage window, so you could predict the outcome of a reduction you requested from the darkroom or if you went from their to the stat camera and dialed in the depth of the copy board from the lens or the aperature of the F stop. The same pertained to using the Lacy Lucy but it was more a visual approach. Knowing how to calculate your changes can shave a lot of experimentation off your time, which makes you more efficient, more employable and if you are self-employed, more money.

I have added a script to a button in DRAW that launches the Windows Calculator from OberonPlace.com's forum, though I don't use it much, you can do most basic math functions in your spin bar controls in DRAW. For example, your box is 3.0 inches wide and needs to be .25 wider. You can find where it reads 3.00 and type + .25, enter, and you are there. Of course most people can figure that one in their head, but suppose you need 3 5/16. I have to look up the decimal equivalent for that or I can just type "3 5/16" in the Transform bar and hit enter and it knows to convert to the decimal equivalent. This doesn't work in the Transform Docker, however. But since I can see the Transform bar when the Transform docker is open, I just copy the numbers. Now since the cutters at a print shop are also dialed in numerically, you can see the advantage of doing it by the numbers. If your work is right more than the next guy, your customers will come back again and again.

But....

If your cut is not the same consistently through the box of business cards, the customer will not be happy.

Thanks for the compliments, BTW, means a lot.

Good luck.

Sally