Slow checking for cutting guide by regular expression.

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paul_barker
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Slow checking for cutting guide by regular expression.

Post by paul_barker »

We are running a pre-flight check in Pitstop (within Switch) which checks if the document is missing a cutter guide including creases and prefs etc. We currently use select spot colour by regular expression ".*[Cc][Uu][Tt].*|.*[Dd][Ii][Ee].*|.*[Cc][Rr][Ee][Aa][Ss][Ee].*|.*[Dd][Rr][Ii][Ll][Ll].*|.*[Ff][Oo][Ll][Dd].*|.*[Pp][Ee][Rr][Ff].*|.*[Sc][Cc][Oo][Rr][Ee].*" and then log the absence of a selection. This works but seems to check every page and takes a very long time as some of our files have nearly 1000 pages. Is there a way to just check if the overall document contains an ink based on a regular expression instead of having to checking all pages individually. I have managed to use FastLane to grab the inks in the file but can't find a way to use that in a preflight check.
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JimmyHartington
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Re: Slow checking for cutting guide by regular expression.

Post by JimmyHartington »

In Switch you have the variable [Stats.Colorants] which will return all the separations in a file.
You should then be able to use this variable to sort your files.

This is the description in Switch:
PDF: a list of the names of all colorants as they appear in Separation and DeviceN color spaces and in page separation info dictionaries in the document; TIFF: a list of the names of all colorants for Duotone or Multichannel images; the list is empty for all other color models
paul_barker
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Re: Slow checking for cutting guide by regular expression.

Post by paul_barker »

Thanks for the reply Jimmy. What I need is to be able to report the absence of a cutter guide colour as part of the preflight report but can't see a way of doing this using [Stats.Colourants].
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JimmyHartington
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Re: Slow checking for cutting guide by regular expression.

Post by JimmyHartington »

Do you need the report to log the absence on each page or is it enough to know that the file does not have a cutter guide colour?
paul_barker
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Re: Slow checking for cutting guide by regular expression.

Post by paul_barker »

I just need to report that the file doesn't have a cutter guide colour.
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JimmyHartington
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Re: Slow checking for cutting guide by regular expression.

Post by JimmyHartington »

So a workaround could be to use the [Stats.Colorants] to route jobs, which does not have the cutter guide color.
Use Pitstop to add add the text "##No cutter color guide##" outside the mediabox on page one.
Route the files back into the preflight check.
Then your preflight check could log the existence of this text string instead.
paul_barker
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Re: Slow checking for cutting guide by regular expression.

Post by paul_barker »

That sounds like a good workaround Jimmy. I will give it a try, thank you.
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