adding bleed to PDF

[paulc]

The number one problem of customer-supplied PDF files: no bleed. Anyone know how I can extend the page elements?

It seems Pitstop should do it, but I can't get it to work.

[almaink]

It depends on the element you need to add bleed to. Sometimes just removing a clipping mask will do it, other times you need to do it on each element using the position tool. If the PDF has no bleed box the next step would be to create one using the Global change page boxes tab. It's no easy feat doing this however and others may cringe at my solution for fixing most bleed issues but I've found placing the PDF in InDesign and either adding elements there or simply enlarging the whole PDF to meet bleed is sometimes the easiest way to do it. Images that need bleed can be opened in Photoshop and saved as psd's or tifs and replaced in Indy for example. With the amount of bad PDF's being made by people that have no printing knowledge these days, creative thinking seems to be a prerequisite for prepress monkeys these days...

[eskopdl]

If this is a persistent problem EskoArtwork has a PDF Editor called PackEdge which has a Fix Bleed function. If your needed bleed is linework it will created the bleed object to get the the amount you have specified, thus leaving your original data intact. For images, if no mask or original image data exists, it can scale the image ( to your specified limits) giving you the extension you require. After which you may then have the option to export the file as PDF or Postscript for you current workflow.
You may do all of the above to your file globally, per page, or per objects interactively.
http://www.esko.com/Web/site.aspx?p=824

We also have a great product that runs on Mac called Neo. Neo offers highly interactive tools to modify all the pageboxes, based on other pageboxes, interactively, or you can simply snap them to selected objects. And with all the editing tools that are available in Neo, it even becomes an easy job to add bleed to objects as required for the output, even if no bleed was specified during the layout process.
http://www.esko.com/Web/site.aspx?p=2295

Good Luck - peter

[almaink]

Both nice applications Peter, but IMO way overpriced for small shops like mine. I just got through watching a video tutorial on new features in Acrobat 8 and it seems like it's now easier to make page size and bounding box changes. Even tho I hate the bloat in Acrobat 8, I will give it a go and see if it's faster than any of my old methods.

[Hopkins Printing]

Hi Paul,

Please contact me off-forum. I have an action list that I believe will do the trick. Email me at: jmorgan at hopkinsprinting dot com.

Cheers,
Jon Morgan
Hopkins Printing

[Hopkins Printing]

Hi Paul,

I think I may have mis-read your post. The action list I have will add a bleed box definition therefore allowing the PDF to have bleed. The action list won't extend actual page content.

My mistake!
Jon

[the_brain]

Hi Paul,


The best way to do this in PitStop Professional would be combi of manual selection and the Inspector panel. Especially the 'position' tab can come in handy!
Select the element and change X,Y coordinates accordingly.

You can try to create an Action List to automate this, but I think it will be too much work for too little process time gained.

I'm sure there are more automatic solutions for this, but in my opinion only for line-art and clipping paths. Resizing images will be a problem...

My two cents..

[mattbeals]

You really don't want to go deleting masks arbitrarily.... That's a really dangerous thing to do. What you want to do is change the size of the masks to reveal certain areas so that you in effect "resize" the object to achieve the bleed.

Removing masks can have some very significantly *bad* consequences if not done very carefully and selectively. Yes, it will work. Just not frequently enough to be "bullet proof". Kind of like editing a PDF in Illustrator. Just because you can doesn't mean you should...

Oh, and while you're at it you should upgrade to PitStop Professional 7.5 and check out Neo 1.2.

[dmrivet]

creative thinking seems to be a prerequisite for prepress monkeys these days...

I'm a monkey lol

There is some way to do it in Acrobat, But now that I am using Acrobat X they fudged things all around... thanks Adobe.

[SnappySteve]

Both nice applications Peter, but IMO way overpriced for small shops like mine.

We're a small shop and we have Neo. If you are receiving bad PDF's frequently and using the long list of steps noted, it is worth the investment. And we have worked fees into our pricing for doing fixes for clients. Most often when faced with missing a deadline to redo their files, they will have us fix the issue and stay in production. It is not a magic hat, but I would not want to do without it after using it for a few years now. Just my .02