Enlarge Clipping Paths

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Kermy812
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Enlarge Clipping Paths

Post by Kermy812 »

I have several pdfs that are a 100 or so pages, but there several piece of line art on each page that are masked to the trim box with clipping paths. There are odd shaped & rotated clipping paths too (most are not square). Is there any way to make an action to select the clipping paths and enlarge the clipping path maybe 10%, so that the bleeds are revealed? I can't seem to be able to select clipping paths with an action. Also, I am using PitStop Pro 12.
bens
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Re: Enlarge Clipping Paths

Post by bens »

PitStop 12 is quite unfortunate - in 13 an action to add bleed was added, which does *exactly* what you need: increase rectangular clip paths to reveal bleed (and in later versions that action has been enriched with lots of other possibilities).

You could try searching the Action List editor for "Select clipping objects" and "Select objects that have a clipping path". I don't know whether these are available already in PitStop 12, but if they are they could help.
There is also "Release mask", which will turn a clipping path into a normal path. You can then enlarge it, and use "Make mask" to turn it back into a clip. You would have to be quite careful to have the correct objects selected though. The action "Select last added objects" can maybe help with that.
But again, I'm not sure which of these are already available in PitStop 12. You may want to convince your boss you really need an update ;-)
Kermy812
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Re: Enlarge Clipping Paths

Post by Kermy812 »

I'm still not seeing how to do this - My clipping paths are not square. I downloaded a trial of the latest version 17, but "Select clipping objects" & "Select objects that have a clipping path doesn't help, it enlarges the object too. Releasing masks doesn't hep either. There's like 30 masks on 1 page. I tried the 2 different prebuilt "Generate Bleed to 3mm" actions, but it does mirroring badly, cause my objects that bleed are not square either.
bens
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Re: Enlarge Clipping Paths

Post by bens »

I'm sorry I misunderstood, I thought your clipping paths were not square but still rectangular. If they are really irregular, there may not be an automated solution for you at the moment.
I would guess that the "Add bleed" action is your best bet, if you check all the files afterwards and manually correct those that went badly.
Or perhaps the best solution is to simply warn on PDFs that need extra bleed, and handle those manually. All files that already have enough bleed can then still be automated.
Kermy812
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Re: Enlarge Clipping Paths

Post by Kermy812 »

no worries - we finally just had to let it go as is mostly, so it's done & gone. The background I was able to fix with our normal process, but the individual pieces on the page that needed bleed, we just left alone. Just a thought, would you be willing to take a look and see if there's a automated solution I'm just not seeing? I've attached 1 page if you wish to see. I've removed some info from the pdf to protect the customer brand.
Attachments
TEST.zip
PDF for test
(58.65 KiB) Downloaded 866 times
bens
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Re: Enlarge Clipping Paths

Post by bens »

Interesting file. I don't think you'll be able to automate this - there are simply too many clip paths, only some of which should be enlarged. Others should definitely not be touched. Differentiating between those in an automated way would be very hard.
Kermy812
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Re: Enlarge Clipping Paths

Post by Kermy812 »

That's what I thought too. Thanks anyway. I could have done this manually, but I have like 250 pages and not the time. It's so frustrating to be the last person in the chain of things, when it's now time to get it out the door.

I wonder if there is a way to put in a feature request anywhere with the enfocus people? Like to select clipping paths and maybe something like select clipping paths near the trim. I played around with the action of Select inside/outside region with the option of Select Clipping paths, but I couldnt get anything to work. It seems all of the forms and shading elements got in the way too.
bens
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Re: Enlarge Clipping Paths

Post by bens »

Bug reports and feature requests can be logged at the Enfocus support portal: https://www.enfocus.com/en/support
Leogirl
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Re: Enlarge Clipping Paths

Post by Leogirl »

Hello All, Has anyone found an updated solution to this ?
Angela Smith
bens
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Re: Enlarge Clipping Paths

Post by bens »

Leogirl: bleed generation has changed a lot since this topic was created. In particular, it can now also extend irregular clip paths. If you have a specific problem with this please create a new topic with more details.
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