How to Make Crop Marks On a Shape in InDesign
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Adobe InDesign's built-in colour and prepress capabilities make it a good program for people who work with commercial printers. Among other things, it can add crop marks in the print dialogue box. Crop marks are lines that tell you where to cut to get the correct size.
An InDesign script will help you get what you need with a push of a button.
Check InDesign to see if the script you need is already installed. With the program open, go to View>Automation>Scripts. This opens the Scripts palette.
- Adobe InDesign's built-in colour and prepress capabilities make it a good program for people who work with commercial printers.
Check the palette for the Crop Marks script. These are often already installed.
Install your InDesign or Creative Suite CD if it is not already installed. Drag the script into your script folder.
Select the object or objects from your file that you want to draw crop marks around. Double-click on the Crop Marks script in the palette.
Enter your requirements in the dialogue box and hit OK. Your marks will be matched to your specifications.
- Check the palette for the Crop Marks script.
- Install your InDesign or Creative Suite CD if it is not already installed.
References
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Tips
- If your object is square, create a custom page size and let the Print box handle the crop marks.
- You can make crop marks around an entire group of objects with this script without joining them together.
- If you want a copy of your file without crop marks, save it before you run the script.
Writer Bio
Sharon McElwee is a writer and designer in Virginia who has written since 1997. She has been published on Greenbelt Interfaith News, Writer On-Line, and Writer's Weekly. Ghostwriting credits include blog posts, sales copy, and Web content. McElwee is an Adobe Certified Expert and completed courses from MediaBistro, Writer's Digest and Inscriptions Magazine in magazine writing and copywriting.