3.6. F6 OUTPUT FILE panel

3.6. F6 OUTPUT FILE panel

The final PDF files generated by the program always have the same size as the selected paper or offset plate, depending on the selected option: Printing technique: Digital printing or Offset printing. Depending on the selected option, the contents of the F6 OUTPUT FILE panel also change.

To select the paper, simply select the row in the table with paper sizes. Changing the row (i.e. changing the paper) is immediately reflected in the preview window. Changing the machine (offset plate) looks the same.

A context menu is available under the right mouse button, allowing you to manage, add and delete rows in the table. You can also change existing entries in the table by double-clicking on the selected table cell.

Positioning the print area on the sheet in digital printing

If the print area is larger than the paper or if part of the print area is offset outside the paper, the background color of the PDF viewer will change to dark red.

Special papers

If the paper name contains the phrase Roll (the case of characters does not matter), the value in the Height column represents the total value of the top and bottom margins. In this case, the paper height is the sum of the print area height and the top and left margins. This allows printing on paper fed from a roll (without an upper height limit).

Example For a print area height of 200 mm and the selected paper named 510_Roll, the paper height visible in the preview field is 230 mm (200 mm + 30 mm).

If the paper name contains the phrase Print area or TrimBox (case insensitive), then this paper does not have fixed dimensions, and its size always corresponds to the print area increased by the values in the Height and Width columns. You can add multiple papers to the list, which will be named "Print area" or "TrimBox" along with an additional phrase.

Example For a print area with a height of 200 mm and a width of 296 mm on the selected paper named Print area, the paper height visible in the preview field is 230 mm (200 mm + 30 mm), and the paper width is 326 mm (296 mm + 30 mm).

If one of the Technical margins is greater than 0, the program draws a semi-transparent red frame indicating the non-printable area resulting from printer limitations. The technical margin may or may not reduce the actual paper area used to calculate automatic spacing between columns and rows.

Size of final imposition files in offset printing

The print area on the imposition sheet is always centered on the X axis (with the possibility of shifting). On the Y axis, the bottom edges of the print area or the center edges can be aligned (for use when printing with a front guide).

The panel displays a table with offset machines. Entries in the table can be managed by selecting the appropriate command from the pop-up menu called up by pressing the right mouse button [1].

Each machine is defined by its name, offset plate size, and three additional parameters specific to the offset machine:

• Punch, i.e. the plate gripper [5] (nothing can be exposed in this area);
• Grip [4], i.e. the non-printable area on a sheet of paper that cannot be printed on and is used to transport the paper through the ink units of an offset printing machine;
• maximum height of the printable area (MHPA) [3]. If this parameter is set to 0, it means that there are no restrictions or that this parameter is unknown.

The figure below shows the relationship between the height of the plate [1], the height of the paper [2], the maximum height of the print area [3], the paper grip [4], and the punch (plate holder) [5].

Aligning the bottom edge of the paper and the print area means that part of the imposition sheet (e.g., cut marks, bottom bleeds, imposition page fragments) will be in the non-printable grip zone. This position can be corrected by the value of the grip, bleed, cut mark size, or their total.

Moving the print area up by the gripper value does not work when the print area and margins are aligned: CENTER + CENTER.

The panel also includes an option to remove unnecessary margins in the file (reducing the size [mm] of the resulting imposition file).