Tip&Trick

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Software version: Asanti 2.0

Document version: July 23, 2015

This document explains how cut paths are detected in Asanti, how the image will be clipped around the cut path for nesting purposes and how to solve the most common issues with cut paths and clipping.

1. Cut Path or Frame (Image Trimbox) As soon as you add an image, Asanti uses some rules to automatically recognize a cut path spot color and assign it to a finishing operation (Tool). These operations can be defined as image contour, which means that the recognized paths will determine the actual shape and size for this image and Asanti will clip all image data outside this shape for nesting purposes.

Asanti sets the size of the image to the:

• size of the Cut Path, if the cut path spot color is recognized as a ‘contour-defining’ finishing operation. With multiple paths, Asanti will take the union.

• size of the Frame, if no cut path spot colors are recognized as a ‘contour-defining’ finishing operation. The Frame is, initially, equal to the Image Trimbox size.

About cut paths and clipping

Tip&Trick About cut paths and clipping

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2. Layout created outside Asanti When layouting is done with a 3rd party application outside Asanti, we expect that this application will create the cutting file and that the output file from this application doesn’t contain any cut path spot colors anymore. So, Asanti will only be used as a RIP and no finishing operations need to be assigned (APR-68037)

But, sometimes the cut path spot colors are still included in the files created by the 3rd party application.

Tip&Trick About cut paths and clipping

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Due to the ‘automatic assignment’ of a cut path spot color to a ‘Finishing Operation’ and the clipping around the shape of the paths when it is a ‘contour-defining’ Finishing Operation, the result on the sheet is not as expected. The clipping will remove some registration marks (mostly on the outside of the image and it will change the size of the image.

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There are 2 solutions:

• You can ‘add’ a new assignment in the ‘Image Inspector’ and assign the ‘Image Trimbox’ to the same ‘contour-defining’ finishing operation.

• If you have to execute the above procedure too many times you could also setup a new finishing operation in the Finishing Hub based on the ‘Trough Cut’ operation but disable ‘Defines image contours’ and keep the list of ‘Spot Color Names’ empty. In the ‘Image Inspector’, you have to edit the assignment for the cut path spot color and assign it to the new finishing operation.

• Future: use a preflight action list to remove the finishing colors: APR-68037

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Remove the image from the sheet and drag it back (for updating) and the result will be as expected. All registration marks will be printed and the image size of the images on the sheet is correct.

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3. Mixture of Cut Path and Image Trimbox Designers sometimes create cut paths inside the image but forget to create a cut path around the image to cut the final product. This is not a problem when you print on the final media size (borderless) but when your media is larger or you repeat/nest several images on one sheet you need to be able to cut the final products apart. In this case, Asanti needs to add a cut path with the same size as the Image Trimbox.

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Due to the clipping around the shape of the paths when it is a ‘contour-defining’ Finishing Operation, the result on the sheet is not as expected. The clipping will remove parts of the image because Asanti doesn’t know that the final product needs to be cut at the Image Trimbox as well.

Tip&Trick About cut paths and clipping

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You can ‘add’ a new assignment in the ‘Image Inspector’ and assign the ‘Image Trimbox’ to the same ‘contour-defining’ finishing operation.

Remove the image from the sheet and drag it back on, the result will be as expected. The clipping around the shape of the paths when it is a ‘contour-defining’ Finishing Operation, will now show the complete image because a cut path was added at the ‘Image Trimbox’.

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4. Cut Path is wrong Sometimes a designer creates images with objects outside the cutting paths but with the cut path spot color. These objects are superfluous and need to be removed in order to create a correct cutting file. Also ‘open cut paths’ will give an incorrect cutting file.

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There are 2 solutions:

• Removing objects outside the cut paths can be easily done in Adobe Acrobat Pro. Choose ‘Edit Externally > Normalized PDF’, remove the objects outside the cut paths with some of the build-in Tools or 3rd party plugins. Save the changed image to disk and import it again in your job.

• For more advanced cut path adjustments you can use specific 3rd party applications, choose ‘Edit Externally > Original Image With’ and choose the application in which you can add, remove or edit the cut paths. Save the changed image to disk and import it again in your job.

Remove the original image from the sheet and place the new one on the sheet and the result will be as expected.

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5. Image Trimbox is wrong Sometimes a designer creates images with the document size not correctly set to the final size of the product.

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You can detect a wrong Image Trimbox size when the size indications in the Image Panel and Positioning Toolbar are not the expected ones. When you created a Preview you can also see that some parts of the image are missing compared with the Image Panel.

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Tip: When the ‘Preview’ is created and you select the image inside the frame by selecting the icon in the center, there is a better visual indication that a part of the image is missing due to a wrong Image Trimbox.

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There are 2 solutions:

• When you have some knowledge about images and frames (e.g. Indesign), you can select the image on the sheet, disable ‘Auto-fit’ in the Positioning Toolbar, change the width and height to the expected one, select the image inside the frame by selecting the icon in the center and change the X/Y position to position the image correctly inside the frame or drag it to the correct position.

• Changing the Image Trimbox can also be done in Adobe Acrobat Pro with the ‘Apogee Docubox Manager’. Choose ‘Edit Externally > Normalized PDF’, select the ‘Settings Dialog’ in the ‘Apogee Docubox Manger’ tool, select the Trimbox and change the coordinates. Save the changed image to disk and import it again in your job.

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Remove the original image from the sheet and place the new one on the sheet and the result will be as expected. The size indications are the expected ones and visually the image in the Image panel and the one placed on the sheet are equal when Previews are created..