Comments on: Put a Frame Around Your Page

By: Magnus Gaarde

Magnus Gaarde — Fri, 09 May 2008 09:53:02 +0000

I always make a nonprinting layer on top of all my layers and put a frame and a vertical stroke dividing the spread on the master page. Then when I need to show the layout to a client I select ‘print nonprinting objects’ from the print menu and the printouts will be framed nicely.
When exporting I just make sure that the ‘print nonprinting objects’ is unchecked (and it is by default) and everybody is happy.

By: Nelson O

Nelson O — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:25:14 +0000

David, I exported a pdf with this setting on and I got a printable trim box (page edge) and bleed box. My bleeds were set to .125. The resulting frames are however hairline rules.

By: David Blatner

David Blatner — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 16:12:25 +0000

Nelson, I like that idea, but that feature doesn’t print the page edge… and that’s what we’re trying to do here. However, I suppose you could set the margins to zero on all four sides, then print with that setting on, and then undo the margin change!

By: Nelson O

Nelson O — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 17:51:11 +0000

Assuming that all your working guides were on their own layer and turned off, you can select “print visible lines and baseline grids”, when you print/export. This will allow your bleed/trim boundaries to print. without the need to add a a frame or run a script/plugin.

By: Phil Frank

Phil Frank — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 23:43:57 +0000

Or you could create a blank page with a frame of the necessary size and add it as a background/watermark to whatever PDF file you need to print with a frame.

By: Chris M.

Chris M. — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:35:32 +0000

Apparently the Badia plug-in is only Mac compatible? The download link only leads to a .dmg file.

By: Chris M.

Chris M. — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:32:41 +0000

I use the first technique all the time when printing books. It’s just remembering to get rid of the frame before final output that’s the hard part. There’s been one or two times where I’ve forgotten and had to output a 200 page book yet again. The plug-in seems neat.

By: David Blatner

David Blatner — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:08:14 +0000

People have tried, but it doesn't work very well. See here for more on PMDs.

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:00:21 +0000

Could this be done with a clever PMD file? Maybe set some giant crop marks somewhere? I’m not familiar with their setup enough to try myself…

By: John Vandenberg

John Vandenberg — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:49:41 +0000

last year I had found a freeware program of some kind that added a line of your spec around the page when printing. I used it all the time. I just can’t remember what it was. It wasn’t a script. Maybe it was when I was in Quark? A Xtension? might have been…sorry for uttering the Q word…seems like a milliion years ago I was using QXP