Sticker Sheets (with multiple designs kiss cut) - Pre-press ideas?

[TradeGraphicDesign]

Hi All, I wondered if anyone had a nifty workflow figured out for sticker sheets (where the labels on the sheet are all different)?
I do a bit of design and pre-press work for a few printers around the UK, one of them has started to do quite a few sticker sheets.
So, for example, customer ordered x100 A4 Landscape sheets.
They can have up to 50 stickers per sheet.

Its just dawned on me, what a monster chew it is to sort out the files.
I'll get 50 JPEGS, which I have to create custom cut outlines for.
I'm doing this with 'image trace' in illustrator, creating a solid 'block' around the graphic areas, then offsetting a path around 2-3 mm away.

Doing that x50 times, is going to get old vert fast

I just wondered if there was some magic system where I can drop the file in, and it'll kick out an offset outline.
I seem to have a distant memory something like that exists.

Thanks in advance

Tim

 

[gazfocus]

Would love to know if you find something. We do a lot of sticker sheets but stipulate that a sheet can only have one design which minimises this to an extent.

You need to think about how much work and time doing a single sheet of 50 designs is going to take. It’s simply not worth the time for what a customer will pay.

 

[jwheeler]

It’s simply not worth the time for what a customer will pay.

Sure it is! He's getting paid by the hour. It doesn't matter if he's designing flyers, or prepping work for press. It's just tedious.

Here's one method I've used that's worth trying in Adobe Illustrator:

1. Copy the image and "Paste in Front"
2. Use "Image Trace"...the 16 Colors Preset usually works but you may have to tweak it a bit to work with your images and save it as a preset
3. On the image trace options panel, expand the advanced options and check the "Ignore Color" option for White to ignore the background.
4. Expand the results
5. Click on the "Unite" option in Pathfinder
6. Offset the path

 

[prepressdork]

What about an Illustrator Action?

pd

 

[gazfocus]

Sure it is! He's getting paid by the hour. It doesn't matter if he's designing flyers, or prepping work for press. It's just tedious.

You’re assuming that the OP is correctly charging for their time and that the company they’re doing the job for is willing to pay the hourly rate x hours spent on setting up 50 designs per A4 sheet.

 

[TradeGraphicDesign]

Sure it is! He's getting paid by the hour. It doesn't matter if he's designing flyers, or prepping work for press. It's just tedious.

Here's one method I've used that's worth trying in Adobe Illustrator:

1. Copy the image and "Paste in Front"
2. Use "Image Trace"...the 16 Colors Preset usually works but you may have to tweak it a bit to work with your images and save it as a preset
3. On the image trace options panel, expand the advanced options and check the "Ignore Color" option for White to ignore the background.
4. Expand the results
5. Click on the "Unite" option in Pathfinder
6. Offset the path

Thanks for the suggest, I'll give this a little tweak, I'm using the image trace tool on the client PNG's, and I can get there 90% of the way, its all just a bit manual - I'll check out your workflow though too, and see if that's quicker. I appreciate the share.

 

[TradeGraphicDesign]

You’re assuming that the OP is correctly charging for their time and that the company they’re doing the job for is willing to pay the hourly rate x hours spent on setting up 50 designs per A4 sheet.

I do a bunch of work for this client, all of it fixed fee, so 99% of the time, I'll chew through the work quick as a flash, but this kind of work does lend itself to an hourly charge, although, its just crying out for automation

 

[TradeGraphicDesign]

What about an Illustrator Action?

pd

I'm going to have a crack at seeing what I can setup as an action, maybe I can chop out a fair bit of the grunt work. Thanks for the suggestion. Tim

 

[prepressdork]

I'm going to have a crack at seeing what I can setup as an action, maybe I can chop out a fair bit of the grunt work. Thanks for the suggestion. Tim

Something you might want to try is Googling to see if perhaps there might already be an action (or perhaps a script) out there that you could adapt to your needs?

 

[TJPrinter]

You may want to try posting this question on Signs 101. They may not have an answer but I'm sure they do this kind of work a lot more than we do.

 

[Stephen Marsh]

Take a look here:

https://printplanet.com/threads/how-to-use-indesign-to-create-sticker-cut-lines-faster-than-illustrator.293844/

 

[loica]

For what is worth, PitStop can also generate cut lines automatically. If you have it already, that may be to be considered.

 

[TradeGraphicDesign]

For what is worth, PitStop can also generate cut lines automatically. If you have it already, that may be to be considered.

Hmm, thanks Ioica - Y'know I just canned the subscription for Pitstop about a week ago, typical! I'll have to go check that out, that could be very cool

 

[TradeGraphicDesign]

Take a look here:

https://printplanet.com/threads/how-to-use-indesign-to-create-sticker-cut-lines-faster-than-illustrator.293844/

Perfect, what an awesome walkthrough! Thanks fro sharing that guide, really useful
Tim