Pitstop 11 add marks to trim box issue

zoran

Well-known member
Does anybody have workaround for default Pitstop 11 action "Add marks to trim box".
By default, action adds crop marks to trim box and offsets marks 1/16" which effectively reduces your bleed to 1/16".
I did not find any way to change this behaviour.

Our default bleed is 1/8" and we would want crop marks at same distance from the edge of the page.
When we want bleed to be 1/4", we would want crop marks to be offset the same amount.

As it is, I did not find way to control offset of crop marks and default really sucks.

I reported this to Enfocus but I have yet to hear back from them.

Any workarounds?
 
Edit the action

Edit the action

If you double click on the action or from the contextual menu find "edit" you can change the action for your workflow.
Hope this was helpful



Does anybody have workaround for default Pitstop 11 action "Add marks to trim box".
By default, action adds crop marks to trim box and offsets marks 1/16" which effectively reduces your bleed to 1/16".
I did not find any way to change this behaviour.

Our default bleed is 1/8" and we would want crop marks at same distance from the edge of the page.
When we want bleed to be 1/4", we would want crop marks to be offset the same amount.

As it is, I did not find way to control offset of crop marks and default really sucks.

I reported this to Enfocus but I have yet to hear back from them.

Any workarounds?
 
There is a built-in "Add Crop Marks" Action that I use. It is very customizable as to size and position of the marks (Edit is accessed by double-clicking or the fly-out menu). It actually adds Trim marks, but the terms seem to be interchangeable in this respect. Like you, I could not find how to customize the marks inside the "Add marks to trim box" action.
 
Are you guys on latest Pitstop 11?
From what I remember both "Add Crop marks" and editing action was easy and worked with previous versions.
Now with Pitstop 11 I have only "Add marks to trim box" action and I did not find way to edit it.
Can you export your action and post it to see if it will work in Pitstop 11 on Mac?

Thanks
 
This is the Action (zipped) I am using in v11, been using since v7 or 8.
 

Attachments

  • Add Crop Marks vPN.eal.zip
    3.1 KB · Views: 428
Enfocus do listen, and we make customer driven changes and improvements to our software every release.
Out of interest who/how did you post your request for a change?
We have many, many ways that you can contact us, forums like this one, facebook, various linkedin groups and of course directly.
if you contact me with a PM I will give you my direct email so we can discuss this and any other ideas for improvements you may have.
 
After 4 days I did get response from Enfocus support and it was basically instruction to build your own action with message, default is default and it matches Adobe and Quark.
I thanked them and responded that I actually have gotten better support from another user on Printplanet who shared his action with me instead of telling me to build it from scratch.
I also pointed out that just because Adobe and Quark have bad defaults that does not mean Enfocus should too and instead they should improve their offering and better the other two companies.
After all, the reason we use Enfocus products in prepress is because they offer better tools that we prepress folks appreciate much.
 
Hi,

I'm new in the forum!! Thanks for being here and sharing all of this.
I'm starting with PitStop's actions and a dude come around..

Does anybody knows how to add a new string variable with the color's name in the document??
I want to place this with the print marks that attached to my page.

Thanks and enjoy!
 
Trim marks for 5, 10, and 15 mm bleed

Trim marks for 5, 10, and 15 mm bleed

Hi

Thanks for all the input. Thought you'd might have a use for this: here are 3 eal's for adding crop marks to pdf's with 5, 10 and 15 mm bleed.
 

Attachments

  • AddCropMarks_05_10_15.zip
    9.9 KB · Views: 411
sounds like a lot of work and running around when you can just add crops in indesign, but i'm sure i'm not fully understanding your workflow or why you are trying to add crop marks in pitstop.
 
Alot of the times, we have no open files (InDesign+fonts+links) to work with/start from. All we get are pdf's that just need a few edits, like for example deleting crop marks/registration marks/page info that is inside the bleed box, and adding crop marks just outside the bleed box.
 
Alot of the times, we have no open files (InDesign+fonts+links) to work with/start from. All we get are pdf's that just need a few edits, like for example deleting crop marks/registration marks/page info that is inside the bleed box, and adding crop marks just outside the bleed box.

Okay, not directed at ANYONE here or anyone in particular

( disclaimer, i am speaking FOR customers of ours, I work for a developer, not a print service provider )

<rant>

Since most designers who submit their PDF for printing have absolutely no idea how it will be imposed, where the printer wants ( or needs ) the marks to be, how long they should be, how thick they should be, what the offset needs to be, why would ANYONE want to add trim marks when submitting the PDF in the first place ?

Sorry, but as a printer, I might want to impose this into a 8.5x11, 11x17, 12x18 or 13x19 imposition template. My bleed is what I need. and I might have to outsource it, so, my bleed needs are totally irrelevant. I might need .125 all around, and you gave me .25 on all sides. I might even impose it for a Duplo slitter, so, i might impose it where I butt the trim to another - and center the PDF into a cell.

So, my point is - who is requiring a designer or prepress worker to add trim marks on a PDF anyway ?

I don't need your stinking trim marks !

I will add my own and only where I need them !

</ranting>

Thanks. I feel better now.
 
Last edited:
abc please can you add this as a feature request. I needed 5mm bleed which pitstop does, but needed the marks offset 5mm rather than the standard 2 and a bit, I found this thread so am sorted now with Jonasukulore's .eals .
I'd ideally like to be able to set the bleed and offsets in the Clean up Trim area Global change.
I have to produce graphics/canvases to wrap around panels/frames so the trim marks are useful guides for positioning but the bleed needs to be big enough for the wrap and have some actual bleed outside that too.
 

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