Printers’ marks
Printing printers’ marks lets you display information on a page about how a document should be printed. You can specify the position of the printers’ marks on the page.
The available printers’ marks are as follows:
•
Crop/fold marks — represent the size of the paper and print at the corners of the page. You can print crop/fold marks to use as guides to trim the paper. If you print multiple pages per sheet (for example, two rows by two columns), you can choose to print the crop/fold marks on the outside edge of the page so that all crop/fold marks are removed after the cropping process, or you can choose to add crop marks around each row and column. Crop/fold marks ensure that marks appear on each plate of a separated CMYK file.
•
Bleed limit — determines how far an image can extend beyond the crop marks. When you use a
bleed to extend the print job to the edge of the page, you must set a bleed limit. A bleed requires that the paper you are printing on is larger than the size of paper you ultimately want, and the print job must extend beyond the edge of the final paper size.
•
Registration marks — are required to line up film for proofing or printing plates on a color press. They print on each sheet of a color separation.
•
Color calibration bars — are color scales that print on each sheet of a color separation and ensure accurate color reproduction. To see calibration bars, make sure that the page size of the print job is larger than the page size of the work you are printing.
•
Densitometer scales — is a series of gray boxes ranging from light to dark. These boxes are required to test the density of halftone images. You can position the densitometer scale anywhere on the page. You can also customize the levels of gray that appear in each of the seven squares on the densitometer scale.
•
Page numbers — helps you collate pages of an image that do not include any page numbers or do not contain page numbers that correspond to the actual number of pages
•
File information — prints file information, such as, the color profile; halftone settings; name, date, and time the image was created; plate number; and job name
To print crop and fold marks
1
Click
File 
Print.
2
Click the
Prepress tab.
3
In the
Finishing marks area, enable the
Crop/fold marks check box.
If you want to print all crop/fold marks, disable the
Exterior only check box.
To print crop and fold marks, ensure that the paper on which you print is 0.5 inches larger on all sides than the page size of the image that you are printing.
To set crop and fold marks, see To edit gutters.
To print composite crop and fold marks
1
Click
Tools Options Global.
3
Click the
Print Style tab.
4
From the
Composite crop marks (PS) list box, choose
Output on all plates.
To set a bleed limit
1
Click
File Print.
3
Enable the
Bleed limit check box.
4
Type a value in the
Bleed limit box.
Usually, a bleed limit of 0.125 to 0.25 inches is sufficient. Any object extending beyond that uses memory needlessly and may cause problems when you print multiple pages with bleeds on a single sheet of paper.
To print registration marks
1
Click
File Print.
2
Click the
Prepress tab.
3
In the
Registration marks area, enable the
Print registration marks check box.
4
Choose a registration mark style from the
Style picker.
To print registration marks, ensure that the paper on which you print is 0.5 inches larger on all sides than the page size of the image that you are printing.
To print color calibration bars and densitometer scales
1
Click
File Print.
2
Click the
Prepress tab.
3
In the
Calibration bars area, enable any of the following check boxes:
If you want to customize the levels of gray in one of the densitometer scale squares, choose a number from the
Densities list (lower values represent lighter squares), and type a new density for that square.
To print page numbers
1
Click
File Print.
2
Click the
Prepress tab.
3
In the
File information area, enable the
Print page numbers check box.
If you want to position the page number inside the page, enable the
Position within page check box.
To print file information
1
Click
File Print.
2
Click the
Prepress tab.
3
In the
File information area, enable the
Print file information check box.
4
Type a job name in the
Print file information box.
If you want to position the file information inside the page, enable the
Position within page check box.
To position printers’ marks
1
Click
File Print Preview.
2
Click the
Marks placement tool
.
3
Click the
Auto-position marks rectangle button
on the property bar.
4
Type values in the
Marks alignment rectangle boxes.
You can also change the position of printers’ marks by clicking a printers’ mark icon in the print preview window and dragging the bounding box.
If you want to affix printers’ marks to the object’s bounding box instead of to the page bounding box, click File Print, click the Prepress tab, and enable the Marks to objects check box.