Editing Trim Box: Which software do you use?

[shane8791]

Hello! We have been using Prinect Geometry Control for years to edit PDFs. You can quickly change the trim box, media box, resize and split a PDF. The problem is it requires an expensive server and it's time to buy a new server again. We've begged Prinect to sell Geometry Control as a separate Acrobat plug-in but they do not. What does everyone use to view & edit a PDF's trim box & media box? We use hotfolders for imposition so the trim box is very important.



Thanks for your time -- Shane.

 

[cementary]

Kodak geometry control is part of prinergy acrobat plugins but doesn't require license. Pm if you need file

 

[prepressdork]

If you have Pitstop, it can modify page boxes.

Best regards,
pd

 

[Tom Peire]

callas pdfToolbox will allow you to do that and more...
Change page size with the help of the “Set page geometry boxes” Fixup (callassoftware.com)

 

[cementary]

callas pdfToolbox will allow you to do that and more...
Change page size with the help of the “Set page geometry boxes” Fixup (callassoftware.com)

As can acrobat pro itself. You do not need callas for just changing PDF boxes. It's all about usability. Acrobat's fixups as callas fixups are just not handy at all

 

[shane8791]

Thanks for your replies! I've tried Prinergy & Pitstop to edit the trim box but still want something closer to Prinect's Geometry Control. We're going to try Callas now.

 

[michaelejahn]

We use hotfolders for imposition so the trim box is very important.

um, okay, well - many imposition apps ignore these boxes ( as designers often do not understand what they are or how much bleed is required ( as there is no standard bleed amount from printer to printer ) - many imposition simply center the PDF into an imposition cell ( of if saddle stitch paginating, will simply move the objects for the cross over ) - so, maybe use an different imposition app ?

 

[Stanislav Rakov]

Esko AE, PitStop, Atrpro+

 

[Kumpel]

Kodak geometry control is part of prinergy acrobat plugins but doesn't require license. Pm if you need file

Still love Kodak Geometry: it's tiny(UI) and nifty(UX), superfast results! (For QuickAndSpeed)
PitStop-Callas can do much more, and sophisticated, but very often not necessary and bulky (IMHO)

 

[rakam59]

Art Pro/Art Pro + handles this real well.

 

[Magnus59]

Kodak geometry control is part of prinergy acrobat plugins but doesn't require license. Pm if you need file

Pity they still haven't released a 64 bit version for Windows though.

 

[P_Crosby]

Although I can only speak directly to Apogee Impose and Preps, I assume most all imposition software use the trim box for page positioning within the imposition. Apogee has had a Acrobat Plugin for years call the Docubox Manager. It was used even before Apogee Impose was available. It works brilliantly and it works in 64 bit environments both Mac and PC. It allows the user to manipulate in various ways all the boxes associated to a PDF page and/or pages in file.

 

[Stanislav Rakov]

There are a million options, especially for money.
Let's have free options in the studio;

 

[cementary]

There are a million options, especially for money.
Let's have free options in the studio;

Ghostscript and all free soft built on top of it is the obvious choice if one is looking for free options.
But usability sucks

 

[mrserge]

If it is only geometry, I strongly suggest to understand the Acrobat built-in possibilities.

 

[Magnus59]

If it is only geometry, I strongly suggest to understand the Acrobat built-in possibilities.

The built in tools leave much to be desired, I remember a time when you could edit the trim box in Acrobat by marquee selecting the area, however, Adobe took that option away. The Prinergy plugin is much more elegant than having to calculate the difference between the crop box and the trim size, especially when the trim dimensions are unknown. The Prinergy and Pitstop tools among others provide a simple interface where the page boxes can be visually dragged to the desired location.
Pitstop also has a default action to set trim and bleed box to marks.