Acrobat 8 and Illustrator PDFs losing crops

[Jennifer Lathrop]

I've used Acrobat 6 Professional for some time. I just upgraded to Acrobat 8 with the Creative Suite. I have designed an ad that is centered on an 8.5x11 page. The ad is quite a bit smaller than the page size with crop marks added (object > crop area > make).

When I save the file as a PDF and then open the document in Acrobat, the excess of the page and my crop marks are gone. Instead, Acrobat only shows me the area as defined by the crop marks from Illustrator. I want it to show me the whole 8.5x11 sheet. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks!

Jennifer

[Steve_Werner@adobeforums.com]

Acrobat is showing you what is defined as the Crop Box. It does that for any page where the Crop Box is defined (like if you created a letter-size page in InDesign). If you want to see the Crop Box, Art Box, Trim Box, and Bleed Box, you can view them and manipulate them by choosing Document > Crop Pages. If you wanted to change the Crop Box to Letter Size, click the Set to Zero button. That won't display the "trim marks" you're probably wanting to see.

To get what you probably want, go back to Illustrator, and choose Object > Crop Area > Release to get back the rectangle that defined the crop area. While it's still selected, choose Filter > Create > Crop Marks. These give you editable lines. Now export a PDF and the Crop Box will be defined as your Artboard size—8-1/2 x 11.

[Jennifer Lathrop]

That makes perfect sense! I didn't realize there were two ways to get crop lines in Illustrator (there's a lot there I don't know!). I don't have the file at work, but I will try that for sure when I get home tonight.

Thanks for your help!

[Donna_Mitchell@adobeforums.com]

I am using Acrobat Pro 7 and noticed that since last week my Document > Crop is missing. What happened?

Thanks,
Donna

[Doug_Katz@adobeforums.com]

Steve, I make visible crop marks in a PDF out of Illustrator by setting them up (along with appropriate bleed) in the Marks and Bleeds section of the PDF dialog. No Filter>Create>Crop Marks needed.

What am I missing?

[Jennifer Lathrop]

In my case, I am asking for the ad to be on a letter size paper with the crop marks around the ad which is a smaller piece of art centered on the page. Weird request, I know. but If i use the crop mark features when creating the PDF, it will put them around the 8.5x11 page, won't it? Meaning if I take the file to be output it will either reduce the page to fit or it will print out on a larger page to accomadate the crop marks on the page.

[Steve_Werner@adobeforums.com]

Yes, Doug, that's the way I'd do it as well. But Jennifer wanted the extra white space around her crop marks.