Automated PDF generation with company logo / job info

Started by Drew, April 20, 2018, 09:00:50 AM

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Drew

I've been using XMF for imposition for a little bit, but yesterday I was asked to start supplying PDF proofs to customers that has our company info, the name of the file, date worked on, etc.  Much like the way back days of hard proofs with an approval sticker slapped on.


I've been able to create an imposition that achieves what the boss wants, but the trouble with it is that it works for just one page size.  I need something more automated for any document size.


Is it possible to create a hot folder that will generate a pdf with a custom mark and slug line positioning?

AaronH

I'm not sure how automated it might be but I know you can save marks and slug line settings as presets and apply them with a dropdown menu. Creating the "sheet size" and such of the PDF might be a bit more of a headache though. I have to make PDF proofs for one customer that requests files at just the trim size (no marks bleed or anything) and it takes quite a bit of finagling to get there. I'm looking for better ways to do everything in XMF all the time though so hopefully someone will know better than I.

Aaron
Mac & Windows | XMF | Fiery | Oris

Joe

Quote from: AaronH on April 20, 2018, 12:48:23 PMI'm not sure how automated it might be but I know you can save marks and slug line settings as presets and apply them with a dropdown menu. Creating the "sheet size" and such of the PDF might be a bit more of a headache though. I have to make PDF proofs for one customer that requests files at just the trim size (no marks bleed or anything) and it takes quite a bit of finagling to get there. I'm looking for better ways to do everything in XMF all the time though so hopefully someone will know better than I.

Aaron

Off topic but you could create an action from Pitstop to change the media, crop, and bleed box to the trim box size though you wouldn't want to apply that to your production pages. We do something similar in Prinergy for soft proofs where Prinergy will let you export the normalized PDF as a PDF without traps at trim size in one shot.
Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills and wills.

Tracy

I have a template that Has a really big sheet size and then it is set to clip to clipping margins so It doesn't matter
what the sheet size is, this was created for me by Fuji and I can't find it in the templates, It's prolly somewhere
in the administrator, I will look where it is at. So if you set to clip at margins you can create a template with
Job slug etc.. I got it to work but I had to modify my template because my template isn't set for a job slug.

Try creating a template with a very large sheet size (40x28)?
and put all the job slug and parameters that you want, clip to clipping margins and see if it works.

Here is a screen shot

Diddler

Tracy, you will find it in –  Administrator / Templates / Workflow Items Templates.

Drew, another way of doing it would be to (make a PDF of you company logo and import as a Mark) create as Intelligent Mark and lock it to the bleed of the job. If the template is set to Auto page size it will adjust automatically with the job size. You can run all the other bits of info you need as a slug line.

You can't polish a Turd, but you can roll it in glitter!

Tracy


Diddler

Hi Tracy, been a couple of crazy months in my life. Back into Prepress full time after automating myself to redundancy from the last company.

Now on the West Coast so even further away.
You can't polish a Turd, but you can roll it in glitter!

Drew

Quote from: Diddler on April 23, 2018, 07:57:24 PMTracy, you will find it in –  Administrator / Templates / Workflow Items Templates.

Drew, another way of doing it would be to (make a PDF of you company logo and import as a Mark) create as Intelligent Mark and lock it to the bleed of the job. If the template is set to Auto page size it will adjust automatically with the job size. You can run all the other bits of info you need as a slug line.

Thank you Didder.

I had already created an intelligent mark, but "real work" got in the way and I put it on the back burner.  Once the production schedule clears up, I'll hop back on it and follow up with the rest of the advice.  Thanks again

Tracy

Quote from: Diddler on April 24, 2018, 08:23:15 PMHi Tracy, been a couple of crazy months in my life. Back into Prepress full time after automating myself to redundancy from the last company.

Now on the West Coast so even further away.
I'm starting to get redundant  :laugh:
Thinking about taking some classes [sigh]

DigiCorn

Quote from: Diddler on April 24, 2018, 08:23:15 PMHi Tracy, been a couple of crazy months in my life. Back into Prepress full time after automating myself to redundancy from the last company.

Now on the West Coast so even further away.
Welcome noob Left Coaster. Whereabouts?
"There's been a lot of research recently on how hard it is to dislodge an impression once it's been implanted in someone's mind. (This is why political attack ads don't have to be true to be effective. The other side can point out their inaccuracies, but the voter's mind privileges the memory of the original accusation, which was juicier than any counterargument ever could be.)"
― Johnny Carson

"Selling my soul would be a lot easier if I could just find it."
– Nikki Sixx

"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut."
― Ernest Hemingway

Joe

Quote from: DigiCorn on April 25, 2018, 11:01:49 AM
Quote from: Diddler on April 24, 2018, 08:23:15 PMHi Tracy, been a couple of crazy months in my life. Back into Prepress full time after automating myself to redundancy from the last company.

Now on the West Coast so even further away.
Welcome noob Left Coaster. Whereabouts?

The west coast of Australia...
Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills and wills.

DigiCorn

Quote from: Joe on April 25, 2018, 11:30:16 AM
Quote from: DigiCorn on April 25, 2018, 11:01:49 AM
Quote from: Diddler on April 24, 2018, 08:23:15 PMHi Tracy, been a couple of crazy months in my life. Back into Prepress full time after automating myself to redundancy from the last company.

Now on the West Coast so even further away.
Welcome noob Left Coaster. Whereabouts?

The west coast of Australia...
ah. Perth. and nothing else.
"There's been a lot of research recently on how hard it is to dislodge an impression once it's been implanted in someone's mind. (This is why political attack ads don't have to be true to be effective. The other side can point out their inaccuracies, but the voter's mind privileges the memory of the original accusation, which was juicier than any counterargument ever could be.)"
― Johnny Carson

"Selling my soul would be a lot easier if I could just find it."
– Nikki Sixx

"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut."
― Ernest Hemingway

iancoulton

Hi all,

This is a great question!

Perhaps one way of doing this would be to use a Postflight profile in the PDF export product in XMF.

It should be possible to create a Pitstop Preflight Profile that includes Action Lists to place a logo and information onto the PDF.

I guess it will depend on exactly what type of information is required in the slugline...

Happy to try it out for you if you can explain exactly what information you require on the PDF proof.

Cheers,

Ian