How to add Crop Marks to output

When preparing print output with bleed, it’s crucial to configure your documents correctly to prevent cutting errors. A key component of this is setting up crop marks, which indicate where the paper should be trimmed. In this tutorial, we will guide you through configuring crop marks available in the Advanced section of the Output Presets and the Print Wizard of OL Connect.

What Are Crop Marks?

Crop marks, also known as trim or cut marks, are lines printed in the corners of your document to indicate where the paper should be trimmed. They are essential for creating bleeds, areas where an image or color extends to the edge of the paper. Since most printers cannot print all the way to the edge, they use larger sheets of paper that are trimmed down to the final size. Crop marks define this trim area, ensuring your printouts maintain their intended design.

Steps

Preparing the template

  1. Open the OL Connect Designer application and load the print template you want to edit.
  2. Load your data.
  3. Go to Section > Properties and set the bleed for your document. After clicking OK, a red border will appear around the page, indicating the bleed area.
  4. Make sure your design is complete and includes elements that extend beyond the page edges. You can do this by adding a background image to the section, adding positioned boxes with a background color or applying a background image to your media (also known as virtual stationery).

Setting up the print job

  1. Go to File > Print to open the Print dialog.
  2. Select your printer model; for this example, we’ll use Generic PDF.
  3. Click the Advanced button at the bottom of the Print dialog, the Print Wizard interface appears.
  4. In the Production Options section, choose the Imposition option.
  5. Click Next until you reach the Imposition Options page.
  6. Specify the size of the Imposition Sheet, which is typically larger than the actual page size of your document.
  7. Set the Layout options; in our example, use Horizontal: 1 and Vertical: 1, also known as 1up.
  8. In the Crop Marks section, set the Type field to Standard (or Japanese) and optionally adjust the other parameters for the crop marks.
  9. Click Print to finish.

For more detailed information, you can refer to the OL Connect documentation on Imposition Settings.