Re: crop marks in PDF for printing

[Henning Hraban Ramm]

Am 2016-11-04 um 13:44 schrieb Alexander Kobel <address@hidden>:

> On 2016-11-04 11:56, Henning Hraban Ramm wrote:
>> Even if your PDF pages are bigger than the intended printed pages, you could 
>> easily define "trim box" and "bleed box" of the PDF. A printshop that cannot 
>> handle these nowadays is no serious business. But then they could do that 
>> for you, too.
>> 
>> (BTW I studied typesetter and printing engineer, worked in printshops for 
>> decades.)
> 
> That reminds me to ask a professional a question that I was pondering about 
> several times earlier on.

;) I know someone of your exact name who runs a copyshop...

> In many brochure-bound volumes of more than two or three sheets (say, 60+ 
> pages), the paper is cut to align flush when the brochure is closed.  So the 
> inner sheets are (sometimes significantly, say in the order of 5mm per page 
> or 10mm per sheet) narrower than the outer ones.  Does / should this impact 
> the layout of the page?  And if so, how?

It should affect the layout insofar as the page contents (should) get moved a 
few millimeters.
That’s a task for the imposition software at the printshop, or previously for 
the "Druckvorlagenhersteller" (lithographer?).

> In particular, should the line lengths be varied throughout the book such 
> that the margins remain identical, or should the inner margin be changed, or 
> the outer one?  IIUC, traditional (text) layout rules are meant to compensate 
> for the visually smaller inner margins when the book is opened, so they say 
> to /increase/ inner margins. On the other hand, many classical layout rules 
> are based on the fact that the outer margin should be as wide as twice the 
> inner margin (hence, whitespace appear identical).  But if the inner sheets 
> are smaller, but the binding offset /increases/ inner margins, the outer 
> margins get even more compressed?
> 
> For music, we have more freedom in layout; the needs are totally different 
> from the ones for text, and things like character count per line do not 
> apply.  As far as I'm concerned, the most important consideration for sheet 
> music page layout is proper places for page turns, and as little of them as 
> possible - without sacrificing readability.  Margins or their symmetry seem 
> to be much less important than for text.
> Still, for aesthetical reasons, I could imagine that either ratio between 
> margins and line length, or the absolute margin widths, should be the same 
> throughout the book.  Opinions and/or professional authority-based knowledge, 
> anyone?

Interesting approach – I never heard of anyone doing this, but it makes sense 
and could even be applied to text layout.

You or the typesetting system would need to know how the book will get bound 
and which pages to change how – if it’s just one booklet (back stitched) or a 
properly bound, thicker volume that consists of several "booklets" (thread 
bound), or if it’s "perfect bound" (single pages glued). In the last case, you 
can avoid layout correction.

Usual layout correction affects only the margins.


Greetlings, Hraban
---
fiëé visuëlle
Henning Hraban Ramm
http://www.fiee.net
http://angerweit.tikon.ch/lieder/
https://www.cacert.org (I'm an assurer)