What is indesign slug

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Last Name! Email Should be valid address. Yes, I want to receive CreativePro weekly newsletter. Depending on your needs, it's possible to choose "All Printer's Marks" so that all marks are included , or the individual marks such as slug area. Select "Include Slug Area" to use the saved slug dimensions. By default, your Document Setup settings will be applied to the print job. If you'd like to override these settings, uncheck the "Use Document Bleed Settings" box. Then, you can manually enter how many inches from 0 to 6 each side extends past the document dimensions.

These blue and red icons are located in the Toolbox. Make sure that "Preview Mode" is disabled, or you may not see these alternate preview options. Then, start adjusting the Page Position options. This area is still printed, but is trimmed off along with the excess bleed. This space is used for elements such as registration and crop marks, colour bars, and notes and instructions for the press operator. Most of the time you can ignore the slug. With modern PDF output, the basics such as crop marks, registration marks etc can be added automatically at output.

Your printer has to deal with a lot of difficult customers. However there may be some occasions where you have need to communicate information to your printer, and that is the purpose of the slug. A common example is package design. Printing for packaging involves things such as dielines, and multiple cuts and folds. The most basic print marks to include in the slug area are crop marks, fold marks and registration marks. In this basic implementation you would include the relevant mark manually in the slug directly in the specific area you need it.

For instance placing a fold mark on either side of the job where it needs to be folded, or crop marks where it needs to be cut. If placing a registration mark manually you will probably never need to do this in your entire career, just FYI be sure to set it using the [Registration] colour swatch, so that the mark appears on every printing plate. Sometimes a document may have something that is intentional, but unusual, in its design and may appear to the printer as though it could be a mistake.

That way your printer knows the abnormality is intentional and can proceed without seeking clarification. When producing package designs, there will almost certainly be specific cuts required. Depending on the type of job this may simply entail a few additional standard trims, but typically will involve diecuts. There is no specific standard way of including dielines in your file, and the process varies from printer to printer.

As a generalised description, a dieline may be included in your job as an additional colour, a non-printing layer, or specific spot. However the dielines are setup, one more use for the slug can be: including a guide for the printer to make it clear what each marking means in relation to cuts, folds and even gluing.