Configurable Trim Marks
TL/DR: It would be incredibly helpful and relatively simple for AI's developers to let users configure the parameters of auto-generated trim marks.
I've been using AI for three decades and somehow, even though I have been doing this the hard way that entire time, it never dawned on me until today to request this: configurable Trim Marks, both in Object: Create Trim Marks and Effect: Trim Marks. This is similar to the following request except that that one doesn't include the why that I feel is important:
https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-desktop-feature-requests/suggestions/41926273-set-the-size-and-offset-of-effect-crop-marks-whi
AI specifically creates trim marks in one very specific way: .5" .3pt lines that are .25" from the boundary of the selected element. That's fine for typical press output and "good enough" for most home/in-office usage, but far from great. That combined distance of .75" is pretty significant overkill for anyone printing a lot of small to-be-cut items on a single printed page (i.e., small designed pieces on a 13x19 sheet), forcing someone who wants to maximize their usage of the media and knows they only need very small marks/offsets for that purpose. When that person is me, for example, I will typically cut the marks down to .15" long with a .07" offset, vastly shrinking the footprint of the combined object.
A great set of configurable parameters would be:
- trim mark length
- trim mark offset
- trim mark stroke weight
- save/edit/delete presets (including Default, which would be what you currently have)
Thanks for your time!
Whit Gurley
shared this idea
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Tom
commented
Title says it all. Allow users to set the size and offset of crop marks while retaining the Live Effect.