For this Fixup to work as intended, the following conditions must be met:

• The irregular silhouette is defined either as stroke in a Spot Color or as a masked shape in the PDF.
• Note: The BleedBox may be present.
• No Bleed or insufficient Bleed is available for the Print Item.

Figure 1: The Basic Settings and Advanced tabs of the Add Bleed on Irregular Shape dialog

The following options are available for creating a Bleed on an irregular shape:

• Templates [1] – settings selected in the dialog can be saved as a template and therefore applied to other Articles/Print Items, used within Fixup Chains and in the Apply Fixups and Check Print Item and Apply Fixups operations.

Basic Settings

• Add Bleed on [2] – select from the drop-down menu whether Bleed should be generated only along the outer border of the Print Item or also on the inner borders. For example, if the Print Item displays the letter "D", Bleed can be generated both along the outer and inner borders. The following options are available:
  • At the outer border – Bleed is generated on the outer border of the Print Item. For example, if the Print Item displays the letter "D", Bleed is generated only along the outer border.
  • On outer and inner borders – Bleed is generated along both the outer and inner borders. For example, if the Print Item shows the letter "D", Bleed is generated both inside, for the counter, and along the outer border.
  • Variable Content [8] – select the desired placeholder – Database Field or User-defined Field – from which the value for generating the Bleed is retrieved. The selected field must contain one of the following values for the Bleed to be generated:
    • AllExW
    • AllExWInBo
• Spot Color for Irregular Shape [3] – select the Spot Color in the Print Item that defines the irregular shape. If no Spot Color is selected, the irregular shape is taken from the masked content in the Print Item.
• Create Bleed behind existing page content [4] – specify whether the generated Bleed should be placed behind existing page content, thereby extending an existing small Bleed.
• Bleed [5] – specify the size of the Bleed to be generated around the detected silhouette. For the Variable Content [9], select the desired placeholder – Database Field or User-defined Field – from which the value for the Bleed should be retrieved.
• Resolution [6] – enter the desired resolution for the Bleed. The Bleed is created as a pixel image by repeating pixels. The smaller the Print Item, the higher the resolution selected here should be. For the Variable Content [10], select the desired placeholder – Database Field or User-defined Field – from which the resolution value should be retrieved.
• Starting Point Pixel Repetition [7] – specify which pixel in the Print Item – starting from the silhouette – is used for the pixel repetition. Note that this value does not work equally well for all Print Items. By using a larger value – for example, 0.9 mm – the Fixup works for almost all Print Items that have been cropped correctly. For the Variable Content [11], select the desired placeholder – Database Field or User-defined Field – from which the value for the starting point of the pixel repetition should be retrieved.

Advanced

• Layer Name [12] – enter the name of the layer on which the Bleed should be created. If no separate layer should be created, remove the name from the input field. For the Variable Content [13], select the desired placeholder – Database Field or User-defined Field – from which the value for the Layer Name should be retrieved.

Figure 2: Values required in the selected field for the Add Bleed on option

In the source file "Irregular_Shape_Start", the Spot Color Dieline defines the silhouette of the irregular shape. The Print Item has a TrimBox of 93 x 103 mm and a BleedBox of 99 x 109 mm. The Print Item has no Bleed. However, the presence of a BleedBox alone is not sufficient for production.

Creating Bleed is essential for further processing. A Bleed of 3 mm is to be created around the irregular shape defined by the Spot Color "Dieline". The values shown in Figure 1 are applied to the source file.

Executing the Fixup produces the corrected version "Irregular_Shape_End". During execution, if a Spot Color has been selected for the silhouette, the Print Item is first masked to the irregular shape defined by the Dieline. The 3 mm Bleed is then created by repeating pixels. If the TrimBox does not yet correspond to the selected Spot Color, the TrimBox is adjusted to match the dimensions of the selected Spot Color. The BleedBox is then positioned at the specified Bleed distance relative to the TrimBox.

Figure 3: Left: Original file; Right: Modified file with Bleed added

Article Update: $PRODUCT_NAME_WORKFLOW 2.3.0 – 09/2026