Help with Preps Colorbars

[JohnM]

I have a new color bar that I need to use for a new press we have just installed. The problem is that preps is not able to resize this color bar that heidelberg provided. It's just an eps and I have tried saving it different ways but I can not get preps to resize or clip the colorbar. Does anyone know what format or in what way I have to save the color bar in order for preps to be able to control it?

Thank you.

John M.

[Al Ferrari]

Re: Help with Preps Colorbars

If you have placed it in Preps > Marks > Dupmarks and it still will not work, then it is not going to. That works only with marks specially written for Preps. Also, they need to be in Postscript, not pdf. Go back to Heidelberg for this.

What's so special about this colorbar anyway?

Al

[Whitaker]

Re: Help with Preps Colorbars

Saving the file as an eps in the dupmarks folder should do it for you.

[JohnM]

Re: Help with Preps Colorbars

I tried an eps and a pdf, I did not try it as a PS. I can see the mark and place it in preps with no problem but just can't size it or clip it. I'm gona give the PS versiona a try and see...

Not too trilled with Heidelberg they don't have an answer except that their customers use Signa Station for impo... U would think that when u have just bought a new press from them they will be a bit more supportive... anyhow...

This colorbar is for a XL105 press which has a sheet scanner at the console. It needs this specific colorbar which just has some specific register marks and some pattern boxes for that scanner.

Thanks...

John M...

Edited by: John Moriano on Mar 19, 2008 12:08 PM

[Joe]

Re: Help with Preps Colorbars

> {quote:title=JohnM wrote:}{quote}
> I tried an eps and a pdf, I did not try it as a PS. I can see the mark and place it in preps with no problem but just can't size it or clip it. I'm gona give the PS versiona a try and see...
>
> Not too trilled with Heidelberg they don't have an answer except that their customers use Signa Station for impo... U would think that when u have just bought a new press from them they will be a bit more supportive... anyhow...
>
> This colorbar is for a XL105 press which has a sheet scanner at the console. It needs this specific colorbar which just has some specific register marks and some pattern boxes for that scanner.
>
> Thanks...
>
> John M...
>
> Edited by: John Moriano on Mar 19, 2008 12:08 PM


Did you try putting it in the dupmarks folder as suggested? And then restart Preps?

Edited by: Joe on Mar 19, 2008 11:58 AM

[jbbbarr]

Re: Help with Preps Colorbars

Why not just build them in Illustrator for each sheet size. This does not take long and name them by the very same sheet size. In the cases where you have odd custom size sheets, use the closest fit or make a new one. You could make all the color bars you need for the basic house sheets in less than 10 min.

[jbbbarr]

Re: Help with Preps Colorbars

Why not just build them in Illustrator for each sheet size. This does not take long and name them by the very same sheet size. In the cases where you have odd custom size sheets, use the closest fit or make a new one. You could make all the color bars you need for the basic house sheets in less than 10 min.

[JohnM]

Re: Help with Preps Colorbars

yeah that's what I did already but I want to figure out why I can't resize them in preps...

[JayB]

Re: Help with Preps Colorbars

John I sent you the colorbars I created for our Image Control and Xl105.

Place them in dupmarks and they should work fine for you. One has a Centering Script applied for use with Upfront.

Good Luck,

Jason

[Al Ferrari]

Re: Help with Preps Colorbars

"but I want to figure out why I can't resize them in preps..."

John, I don't think just any mark will resize by simply being in the Dupmark folder. The ones that do have special code in them that interacts with other code in the Preps postscript stream. The colorbar marks that do work that way were hand coded in postscript by Ray Johnson who is sadly no longer part of the Preps team. But you can try contacting him at:

425 379-7644 or e-mail ray_johnson@verizon.net

The information is from 12/06, and may/may not work. He did continue to create special marks for Preps on a freelance basis. So I am sure he could either adapt the Heidelberg supplied colorbar or make one from scratch with the required register targets. I encourage you to contact him.

Al

[pcmodem]

Re: Help with Preps Colorbars

You can use EPS files created from Illustrator but you should use Illustrator 8 to save them out. Illustrator 8 has simple code compared to the newer versions of Illustrator. Also, when you resize a colorbar within Preps, it removes the extra amount of the colorbar from the right. Thus making the colorbar not centered which is most likely what you need for a colorbar scanner. I know we had to have our colorbar centered with our colorbar scanner.

To have your colorbar centered within Preps, you need to modify your colorbar. After you have saved your colorbar from Illustrator 8, open up the EPS in a Text Editor and scroll down until you see a %%End Comments
After that you will need to Paste in the following code. This allows for horizontal centering. You will also have to change the llx and urx number to match the bounding box size of your EPS which you can find at the begining part of the EPS.

% Start horizontal centering mark code for Preps
%
%SSiNoCaching
% Change llx and urx to match the %%Boundingbox
% or %%HiResBoundingBox of the EPS mark (1st and 3rd number)
/llx 74.5508 def
/urx 3093.4492 def
/cwidth clippath pathbbox pop exch pop exch sub def
urx llx sub cwidth sub 2 div neg 0 translate
%
% End centering mark code for Preps

[stargate]

Re: Help with Preps Colorbars

Yes. Save them in CS3 or whatever as Illustrator 8 EPS file and it should work.

[JohnM]

Re: Help with Preps Colorbars

Jason, thanks for the colorbars they worked like a charm... !!!!

Al, if I run into problems I'll keep his info handy, thanks...

Brian I'm gona try this with the ones I made and see how it goes I'll keep u posted.

thanks for the help...

[gig0]

Re: Help with Preps Colorbars

This almost sounds like one of the many issues I've come across using custom marks and color bars in Preps all these years.

I'll spare you the long rant and tell you that need to save those color bars in Illustrator 8 or 10. 'Save as' version 8 or 10 from Illy CS3 WILL NOT cut it, thanks to sloppy half-ass coding.

[JayB]

Re: Help with Preps Colorbars

No Problem. Glad to help out...