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ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR CS2
User Guide
Cropping artwork for printing
Cropping artwork
By default, Illustrator crops artwork to the boundaries of the artboard. However, you can choose to crop to the edges
of the artwork or to a crop area that you define. The option you choose sets the position of the printer’s marks on
your document and defines the printable boundaries of the artwork. These printable boundaries, called the print
bounding box, are represented by a dashed line surrounding the artwork in the Print dialog box’s preview window.
(The bounding box is not visible if it’s the same size as the artboard and the media, but it’s still there.)
In addition to specifying how to crop artwork, you can also create and use multiple sets of crop marks within your
artwork. Crop marks are useful, therefore, when you want to create several sets of marks around objects on a page—
for example, when printing a sheet of business cards. Crop marks differ from the crop area in several ways:
• There is at most one crop area in a document, whereas you can create crop marks for as many objects as you want.
• The crop area is indicated by a set of visible but non-printing marks, whereas crop marks are printed with regis-
tration black (so that they print to every separation plate, similar to printer’s marks).
• Crop marks do not replace trim marks created with the Marks & Bleed options in the Print dialog box or with the
Object > Crop Area > Make command.
To specify how to crop artwork
1 Choose File > Print.
2 Select Setup on the left side of the Print dialog box.
3 For Crop Artwork To, specify whether to crop the artwork to the artboard, the bounding box of all artwork in the
document, or to the defined crop area.
If you want to crop artwork to the crop area, you must first define the crop area.
To define the crop area
1 Draw a rectangle to define the boundaries of where you want the crop area to appear. (It doesn’t matter if the
rectangle is filled or stroked.)
If you want the artwork to contain a bleed, make sure that there’s enough artwork beyond the rectangle to accom-
modate the bleed.
2 Select the rectangle.
3 Choose Object > Crop Area > Make.
Any previous crop area is replaced by the new one. If you have selected a rectangle as the border, the crop area
replaces theselectedrectangle.Ifnorectangle hasbeenselected, thecropareaisplacedatthe cornersofthe artboard.
To view the crop area or reset it to its default location of the artboard, choose Select > Deselect and then apply the
Crop Area > Make command.
To eliminate or edit the crop area
❖ Choose Object > Crop Area > Release. The original rectangle reappears with its fill and stroke removed. You can
then delete the rectangle, or edit the rectangle and choose Object > Crop Area > Make to reestablish the crop area.
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