bleed and crop marks

Hi
We are trying to create PDFs that we can send to a printer with "bleed edges" and "crop marks." What would be the best way to do this? I found the ExtendedPageDimensions class but can't seem to get it to work right.

If I start with dimensions:
Dimensions dimensions = new Dimensions(PageSize.LETTER,PageOrientation.PORTRAIT);

What do I do to set up dimensions for an 1/8 inch bleed and 1/4 inch crop lines?

Do I set up a page that is bigger than a standard LETTER page? So then all my X,Y coordinates would be positive?

Or do use a standard page size with negative coordinates to bleed images left and top?

Thanks

Actually you will want to start directly with an ExtendedPageDimension class instead of the Dimensions class.  In other words you would create a Dimensions for your bleed, crop, trim, etc. and then pass all those Dimensions into the ExtendedPageDimensions constructor.

One of the Dimensions that you pass into the ExtendedPageDimensions constructors is the Body and that will be the actual body of the PDF and all your X and Y coordinates would then be relative to that.

Thanks,
ceTe Software Support Team

do the x,y parameters in the ImportedPageArea constructor refer to the upper left of the 'body' when importing a PDF with bleed?

where is the best documentation of ExtendedPageDimensions?

thanks,

marc

sorry, i meant to say 'trim' instead of 'body'.

in case there's any difference,
i'm using the .NET version.

marc

Hello Marc,

By default the X and Y parameters in the ImportedPageArea constructor refer to the upper left corner of the Crop Box which is very similar to Trim Box. However you can set the X and y parameters in the ImportedPageArea to refer to any desired Page boundaries.

You will have to create ImportedPageContents object which takes the page boundaries as part of the constructor. Then pass the ImportedPageContents to the overloaded ImportedPageArea constructor.

The detailed documentation about ExtendedPageDimensions is available in PDF Reference under chapter Document Interchange and the topic is Page Boundaries.

Thanks,
ceTe Software Support Team

forgive me, but where is 'PDF Reference'?

while we're on documentation,
where is detail about the difference between:
ImportedPageArea
ImportedPageContents
ImportedPageData

thanks again,

marc

Hello Marc,

The PDF Reference is available online on Adobe's website. Click here to go the PDF Reference. You will find documentation on Extended Page Dimensions under section 10.10.1 on page 890.

The difference between ImportedPageArea and ImportedPageData is that, with ImportedPageArea, you can place the imported contents anywhere on the page by specifying the X and Y coordinates and it's relative to the upper left corner of the page whereas with ImportedPageData, the imported page gets added relative to the center of the page. It is mainly used when wanting to add any elements to the center of an existing page.

When using the same page contents multiple times within the same document, it is important to create an ImportedPageContents object once, and use it in the ImportedPageArea and ImportedPageData class constructors. Doing so will prevent the page contents from being embedded in the document multiple times and the data will be shared, reducing the overall size of your document.

Thanks,
ceTe Software Support Team