Illustrator CS3 WTF Is Up With Crop Area, Crop Marks or Printers Marks and Save as PDF?

Once and for all the right way (in CS3 - it probably different in CS4) to set up your print document with bleed and then save it as a PDF with cropmarks, printers marks, etc

Quick internet search reveals - CS3 and cropmarks in PDF is a common WTF, something in this version is wrong or unintuitive. 

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/319094

In Acrobat, command+shift_t will bring up the crop pages dialog. 

The "crop" dimension is what is normally displayed in Acrobat. If you check the other crop to boxes, trim, bleed and art, your bleed should be revealed, but your trim marks will not be in the correct location. 

When saving as to pdf in CS3. As long as the crop area is within the artboard, the crop and art bounding area is set to the crop area dimension set. 

The trim is set to the artboard dimension. Bleed is the bleed setting added to the artboard dimension. 

So, you want to adjust your artboard to your trim dimension, release the crop area, and save to a pdf. 

The problem gets worse if you crop area selection crosses in and out of the artboard. 

Illustrator introduced exasperated this issue since cs2 when they did a quick fix for cs1 behavior of setting the crop box to the arts bounding box. We are still suffering with it in cs3 but I hope it is address in 4.

It seems the Crop Area tool, and the Object> Crop Area> Make are the same thing, and both are NOT intended to be used as crop marks like we want for printing and in conjunction with Save as PDF. They look like cropmarks but are actually evil. Actually they are good for things like webdesign, or titles design eg when you save for web it saves just the stuff defined by crop area, this is nice. But evil for printing.

SOLUTIONS

One Method 

Use the crop area tool to make the crop marks, then DRAW OVER THEM and then delete the crop area. Useful if for example you will also be drawing in other things like fold lines. 

Another Method

Use filter > create > crop marks (still need printers marks etc though). This is similar to just drawing over then deleting the crop area method above. I find it not ideal. 

Crop area's "crop marks" are not crop marks. Filter>Create>Crop marks is what you are after in CS2. However, reports are that filters were removed and the crop mark filter has been moved to effects. (I think he is talking about CS4 here). 
Again, Object>crop area>make is not what you are after.

The Right Way!

http://www.allgraphicdesign.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=18271

...First DO NOT use the CROP area tool to make crop marks. Simply make the artboard the size of the finished document. Make sure all images or artwork that is going to bleed off the page extends at least 1/8th or .125 inches over the edge or you artboard. I personally like to be very precise and I either make them exactly .125 using a guide or a I use a clipping mask to clip anything going farther that .125 so that the image ends exactly .125 over the edge of the art board. This is not always necessary but besides having a nice clean piece there are other benefits to doing this.

Now the trick here is where you were close and I don't know why so many people have a hard time time with this but believe me they do. You File/Save as/PDF in your marks and bleeds select trim marks only ( you don't need all the other extra garbage) Set you offset to .125. This makes your cut marks start at the edge of your bleed outside of the artwork. DON'T FORGET TO SET THE BLEED. So many people miss this little part. set the bleed to .125 on all 4 sides. Save an walla a Perfect PDF with .125 in bleed and cut marks outside the artwork.

So in summary:

1/ Set up your document size (the artboard) when you begin to the same size as the finished artwork size (like if you want a full bleed A4 flyer, set your document size (the artboard size) to A4. Don't think about it too much you just make the size of the artboard the size of what you want to get back from the printer. 

2/ Makes some guidelines 3mm or whatever your printer requires offset outside the artboard area. This is your bleed area. Make sure your artwork extends into this area. 

3/ The cropmarks are made when you Save As > PDF along with other printers marks, following instructions as described above. 

4/ AGAIN DONT USE THE CROP AREA TOOL or OBJECT > CROP AREA > MAKE command. They are evil. 

Indesign Cropmarks Script

also - just good to remember this relates - in Indesign if you want crop marks you usually do them when you export your PDF, but if you need custom crop marks, and fold marks and such things, then you need to make your crop marks in the Indesign file itself, not when you make the PDF. You need to install a script that does it... 

http://forums.adobe.com/message/1280892#

If you want to produce your own crop marks, there is a script that comes with InD that will draw crop marks around any selected object. I find it useful when it is absolutely essential that I include fold marks (which making a PDF won't do). I also find it useful to put all these marks in a slug area. 

Window>interactive>scripts. You may have to install the scripts. They're on one of the install disks. 
In CS3, Scripts go into applications>Indesign>Scripts>Script Panels

The right way to edit a PDF in Illustrator CS3 Tutorial

Read this tutorial
http://www.graphic-design-employment.com/how-to-edit-pdf.html

Basically, in Acrobat, show your Advanced Editing palette, select the 'TouchUp Object' tool right click or control click on your document and go Edit Page, which opens the temporary file in Illustrator and do your edits. No importing, exporting, saving as etc etc.

I found this very useful because the PDF I wanted to edit had extra bleed and crop areas around it, (not visible in Acrobat) but visible in Illustrator, when you go just File>Open the PDF and edit it that way in Illustrator. But, when you save it, Acrobat now shows the bleed and crop which isnt what I want. Sure, I could probably just move the Illustrator artboard in a bit, and when you save back as a PDF I think CS3 automatically crops to the artboard size. But, that would require fiddling around with the artboard size, realigning the artwork, its just a hassle and Id prefer to alter the original file as little as possible, I dont want to have to think about crop areas and read up about all that just to make a few text changes to a document.

Flash CD-ROM - Opening PDFs cross platform

This info works for me using Adobe Flash CS3 and Actionscript 2.0 (AS2) and a Mac Powerbook G4 OS x 10.4.11. Make sure you read the Known Bugs at the bottom of the page before pulling your hair out and retiring to a Armish commune...
If you notice errors when using this info please correct and post into a comment.

How to get PDFs opening in Acrobat (or a Word .doc opening in Word and so on) from a standalone flash projector such as would go on a CD-ROM. And you need your CD-ROM to be cross platform.

No panic just go to this great rundown first: http://www.northcode.com/blog.php/2007/08/07/Conquering-FSCommand-EXEC-Part-1-Proxy

scroll down and download the file there called example.zip

(Cant really remember but think that is the original fscommand example folder i used to start working with. There is possibly another one out there with all the cross platform files called "thefile" but i couldnt find it.)
Look in that example to get your head around what you need to do in your own flash project. Then copy the fscommand folder into your own projects root folder and rename the files to thefile.exe, thefile.bat, thefile.pdf.

then follow this....
(Maybe I'm paranoid but its a good idea if you are copying and pasting code from a blog, to paste the code into the TextEdit Application or similiar and go Format>Make Plain Text, then copy paste that into Flash. Otherwise there could be some hidden text formatting voodoo messing up your scripts.)

Heres the Actionscript for opening a pdf from a button in a flash standalone projector (AS2). In the examples and instructions the pdf file we want to open is called thefile.pdf:

Put the below into a frame script:

//this helps open the pdf cross platform
function SmartExec(target)
{
platform = substring(getVersion(), 1,3);

if (platform == "WIN")
{
// we're running on Windows, target an EXE file
fscommand("exec", target + ".exe");
}
else
{
// we're running on a MAC, target an AppleScript file
fscommand("exec", target + "_script.app");
}
}
//for info see http://board.flashkit.com/board/showthread.php?t=756863. I added in the .app extention after _script myself, because it didn't work without it as was published elsewhere.

//this is the button on the stage that the user clicks when they want to open the pdf. You'll need to make this button. It has an instance name of "pdf_btn1"
pdf_btn1.onRelease = function():Void
{
SmartExec("thefile");
}

//this is the end of the frame script yo!

How to make the pdf opening scripts (.app, .exe, .bat)
Mac (.app):
1/ copy this applescript below:

--set the name of the file to open
property fileName : "thefile.pdf"

--get the path to the containing folder
set myPath to (path to me as string)
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ":"

set the parentFolder to ¬
((text items 1 thru -2 of myPath) & "") as string

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""

-- find the flash file

try
set targetFile to alias (the parentFolder & fileName)
on error
--ie if there's no file here by this name, it will quit.
return quit
end try

-- open the file

tell application "Finder"
open file targetFile
end tell

-- the applescript has ended yo!

2/ copy paste that script above into applescripts 'script editor' (applications>applescript>script editor) if your not on a mac youll need to google how to make and applescript on a pc at this point.
3/ change "thefile.pdf" to whatever your pdfs file name is, or leave it as thefile.pdf for now until youve done a test.
4/ file > save as
5/ name your file your pdf files name then add '_script' at the end of your file name and before the file extention. so if your pdf is called thefile.pdf then your applescript will be called thefile_script.app
6/ while still in the save as dialogue box, at file format dropdown choose 'application'. at options, tick 'run only'. click save. save into your fscommand folder where your pdf is too.

Windows (.bat,.exe):
1/ simply change the .exe filename to your pdfs filename. so if you pdf is called thefile.pdf, then change your exes name to thefile.exe.
2/ to make the bat file, simply open the bat file in this template folder in textedit, change the filename in its script to your pdfs filename, then go format > make plain text, then go file> save as and change the filename to your pdfs filename and .bat. ie thefile.bat. you will need to untick the option at the bottom that says "if no extention is used use .txt." or it will mess up your filename. Choose plain text encoding Western Windows Latin 1. save into your fscommand folder with your pdf file.

Known Bugs:
i read it here: http://www.atomiksoftware.com/fire-up/index.htm
theres a bug in flash player 9 when your authoring in cs3 on mac, which will stop the pdf from opening. Even when you say you want to publish your swf file to flash 8, you projector publishes to your most recent flash player version, which is probably 9. To get around it, you need to publish your projector to flash player 8.
To do this you will need to download the standalone flash player 8 from adobe. http://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/downloads.html
You can download and run the old player from just a desktop folder, it dosnt interfere with other stuff. Drag it to the dock so you can use it for quick opening.
Now in flash, make your publish settings to be to flash player 8, and a swf, and dont tick macintosh projector. (you can do a windows one if you want). then publish.
then in the finder navigate to where you saved your swf, then drag that swf into the shortcut you just created in the dock for the SAflashplayer 8, to open the swf in that version of flash player.
Then when youve got it open, go file> create projector. Then, open your projector and test launching the pdf, it should now launch your pdf using applescript properly.
test on a pc also, although this bug didn't occur on a pc last time. Think because the proxy.exe (yours was called test.exe when you downloaded it) has a fix in it already
http://www.northcode.com/blog.php/2007/08/14/FSCommand-EXEC-is-Broken-in-Flash-CS3

File name length issues / bugs?
So I thought I had documented the definitive process, then I come across something else! There is a restriction on how long your .pdf or .doc or whatever filenames can be.
For example I can open a file with these names:
21characters111111111.doc
20characters11111111.doc
19characters1111111.doc
and under

But cant open a files with these names:
22characters1111111111.doc
23characters11111111111.doc
24characters111111111111.doc
and over

So before you go making all your scripts, exes, bats etc, you'll need to re-name all your files to be under 22 characters long not including the file extension .doc, .pdf etc.

Yeh I know I'm screaming on the inside too because I just finished making them all.
NOT TESTED on a PC or from a CD-Rom on a mac. I doubt testing it from a CD-ROM would make a difference. Even if it did, its not any help, because I want to proof my projectors as standalones as I'm working, not burn a CD every time I want to proof it.

And Lastly... make sure your pdfs, exes, bats, .apps are all inside one folder called fscommand. This fscommand folder should live in your root folder, or at the same level as the flash projector file that want to open the pdf.

Ill be posting the definitive 'How to burn a cross platform CD-ROM on a mac' very soon, which will make this info complete.