Illustrator CS4 - separation names

[him up north]

After years (decades?) of our in-house studio using Freehand, the art/prepress function is moving over to Adobe Illustrator. For every piece of art, we output black and white separations from a laser printer. Our art contains many specials (varnishes, opaque layers etc.) in addition to CMYK and sometimes pantones.

One quirk we have found is that Illustrator prints the separation names consecutively across the top of the art. Because we use so many colours (as many as 15 or 16), the names end up falling off the page. These lasers are used further down the line and without a sep name are hard to identify.

My question is, is there a way to user-define how the sep names are presented? Freehand just prints them one on top of another. All we've found so far in Illustrator is a choice between roman and Japanese format - neither does want we want. We need to keep the artwork in Illustrator, so converting to pdf isn't an option.

 

[oxburger]

I did some tests. That is a pain in the rump. I did some research through Adobe's knowledge base and came up empty.

If you get a workaround, please post it.

 

[Jules]

Can you add a legends with all swatches(as normally done in the packaging industry)? If yes, it could help you.

 

[claude72]

After years (decades?) of our in-house studio using Freehand, the art/prepress function is moving over to Adobe Illustrator.

Why not move to InDesign???

 

[Jules]

I guess because if he is using freehand is for single artworks and not multipages, so the best choice is Illustrator. However the problem would be the same with indesign.

 

[kyle]

If you're using a Mac, find the following file:

/Applications/Adobe Illustrator CS4/Adobe Illustrator.app/Contents/Frameworks/AdobeAGM.framework/Versions/A/AdobeAGM

Make a backup copy of the file

Using a hex file editor (TextEdit may work - it seems to preserve unedited portions of binary files)

Change every instance of the following:

SamePositionOnAllPlates{tab character}false

to:

SamePositionOnAllPlates{tab character}true{space}

The space at the end is important - if you omit it you will shift the position of most of the file's data.

There are six instances in my file - I'm not sure which ones actually makes the difference because I changed them all at once. If you are using Windows, the file path will be completely different, and may be in \Program Files\Common Files or nested somewhere in \Documents and Settings\{Your user name or "All Users"}\Application Data or \Documents and Settings\{Your user name or "All Users"}\Local Settings\Application Data or it may not exist at all. I just now tried this, so there may be bad consequences, but the test file I output appears correct.

If you need help editing the file, I can give you my email address. Alternatively, you could print to/save as a PDF without marks as a composite and print your seps from Acrobat. If you choose "QuarkXPress" as the mark type there, the sep names are all in the same place.

 

[claude72]

I guess because if he is using freehand is for single artworks and not multipages, so the best choice is Illustrator.

Not sure: historically, the packaging has used Illustrator or Freehand because compared to XPress they were the best softwares for this job...

... but since InDesign exists, the packaging begins to switch slowly to InDesign, which has almost all the Illustrator features needed for the packaging, plus all the advantages of a real layout software, like a better and easier handling of texts, fonts, raster pictures, and like bleed and margin automatic lines, and easier printing... (althought Adobe has really greatly improved the printing features of Illustrator, outputting a film from Illy is still a "pain in the back" compared to InDesign or Xpress!!!)

And even for one-page jobs, Illustrator still remains a drawing software, but not a layout soft, and remains a second choice!!!

However the problem would be the same with indesign.

Perhaps not: InDesign is a layout software, made for outputting to an imagesetter, and there are certainly plug-ins (they exist for XPress) that allow the user to add his own crop-marks, registration marks, control bars and other extra stuff needed.

 

[Jules]

... but since InDesign exists, the packaging begins to switch slowly to InDesign, which has almost all the Illustrator features needed for the packaging, plus all the advantages of a real layout software

Dear Claude, I do not want to convince anybody that Illustrator is the best choice for packaging, but since I work in the packaging market I have always handled the majority of my jobs with illustrator in the artwork process and artpro in the repro.

Honestly both illustrator and indesign offer similar capabilities, but as already said, illustrator can have specific packaging plug-ins.

I don't care of plugins to add different crop markers or whatever, in the packaging market we tend to use even complex cutters and registration marks may change a lot in terms of shape and position by the print technology used.

Weather for commercial print and long text documents you are perfectly right. I would choose indeed indesign.

Anyway this is my point of view.

 

[him up north]

Why not move to InDesign???

LOL, good one.

Seriously, it's taken these dyed-in-the-wool Macromedia fetishists in the studio long enough to grasp the Illustrator nettle. It would take an obstacle of greater proportions than this to go to InDesign. But thanks, I take your point.

 

[him up north]

Dear Claude, I do not want to convince anybody that Illustrator is the best choice for packaging, but since I work in the packaging market I have always handled the majority of my jobs with illustrator in the artwork process and artpro in the repro.

Honestly both illustrator and indesign offer similar capabilities, but as already said, illustrator can have specific packaging plug-ins.

I don't care of plugins to add different crop markers or whatever, in the packaging market we tend to use even complex cutters and registration marks may change a lot in terms of shape and position by the print technology used.

Weather for commercial print and long text documents you are perfectly right. I would choose indeed indesign.

Anyway this is my point of view.

It's kind of a legacy thing. Illustrator provided the shallowest learning curve (although maybe steeper than they'd care to admit) from Freehand. Those guys have always used a vector-based artwork package. Client-supplied art was almost always in Illustrator, necessitating migrating it to Freehand (I know... I know...).

Personally, I love InDesign and would have its babies, but hey, I'm not a "creative" type.

 

[him up north]

If you're using a Mac, find the following file:

/Applications/Adobe Illustrator CS4/Adobe Illustrator.app/Contents/Frameworks/AdobeAGM.framework/Versions/A/AdobeAGM

Make a backup copy of the file

Using a hex file editor (TextEdit may work - it seems to preserve unedited portions of binary files)

Change every instance of the following:

SamePositionOnAllPlates{tab character}false

to:

SamePositionOnAllPlates{tab character}true{space}

The space at the end is important - if you omit it you will shift the position of most of the file's data.

There are six instances in my file - I'm not sure which ones actually makes the difference because I changed them all at once. If you are using Windows, the file path will be completely different, and may be in \Program Files\Common Files or nested somewhere in \Documents and Settings\{Your user name or "All Users"}\Application Data or \Documents and Settings\{Your user name or "All Users"}\Local Settings\Application Data or it may not exist at all. I just now tried this, so there may be bad consequences, but the test file I output appears correct.

If you need help editing the file, I can give you my email address. Alternatively, you could print to/save as a PDF without marks as a composite and print your seps from Acrobat. If you choose "QuarkXPress" as the mark type there, the sep names are all in the same place.

Sir, you are a genius. Many thanks.

 

[claude72]

Dear Claude, I do not want to convince anybody that Illustrator is the best choice for packaging, but since I work in the packaging market I have always handled the majority of my jobs with illustrator in the artwork process and artpro in the repro.

Up to you!!!

Each time I made a box, I made it with InDesign... (but it's a kind of joke, as I made very few boxes... it's not my speciality)...

... anyway, even if it's not my job, I get some news about how packaging work in France, and last news said that InDesign begins slowly to replace Illustrator and is more and more used.