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

• The Print Item has an irregular shape.
• The irregular shape must be completely closed – with no transparent or white areas – resulting in a clearly defined shape.
• If the Print Item is an image, the irregular shape should not be "compromised" by image artifacts caused by JPEG compression.
• If the Print Item is an image, any existing clipping path should be clean and should not be surrounded by remaining groups of pixels.

Figure 1: The Basic Settings, Advanced and Additional Dieline tabs in the dialog of the Fixup Add a Dieline for Irregular Shapes

To generate a Dieline for an irregular shape as well as an additional Dieline, the following options are available.

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

Basic Settings

• Stroke Width [2] – enter the stroke width for the Dieline to be generated. For Variable Content [3], select the desired placeholder – Database Field or User-defined Field – from which the value for the stroke width should be retrieved
• Line Shape [10] – select the line shape for the Dieline to be generated from the drop-down menu.
• Spot Color to search for [4] – select the Spot Color to be used to generate the Dieline from the drop-down menu. All Technical Colors assigned to the Cut Contour type are available for selection.
• Offset [5] – enter the desired offset of the Dieline from the shape found in the Print Item. For Variable Content [11], select the desired placeholder – Database Field or User-defined Field – from which the value for the offset should be retrieved.
• Apply only to Spot Color [6] – when this option is enabled, a Dieline is generated only for all objects using the selected Spot Color. Any existing shape in the object is ignored.
• Spot Color Name [7] – enter the name of the Spot Color for which a Dieline is to be created. This option can only be selected if the Apply only to Spot Color option is enabled.
• Reduce to outer border [8] – when this option is enabled, Dieline generation is restricted to the outer border of the Print Item. For example, for the letter "D", a Dieline is generated only around the outer part, but not around the inner counter.
• Skip generation of the Dieline if a Dieline already exists [9] – when this option is enabled, Dieline generation is prevented if a Dieline already exists in the Spot Color selected under Spot Color Name [7].
• Set TrimBox to Dieline [12] – when this option is enabled, the TrimBox is set to the Dieline.

Advanced

• Tracing Options [13] – select from the drop-down menu how accurately the Print Item should be traced to generate the Dieline. The more intricate the Print Item, the more accurately it should be traced. However, note that more accurate tracing also requires significantly more processing time. The following options are available:
  • Low (less path points) – the objects are traced less accurately at 75 dpi, but the process is faster.
  • Standard – the objects are traced more accurately at 300 dpi while still remaining a fast processing speed.
  • Accurate (many path points) – the objects are traced very accurately at 800 dpi - but more slowly.
  • Highest Accuracy (slow) – the objects are traced with the highest accuracy at 2400 dpi, but the process is significantly slower.
  • Variable Content [17] – for Variable Content, select the desired placeholder – Database Field or User-defined Field – from which the value of the path points for the selected accuracy should be retrieved. The selected field must contain one of the following values for this mode to be used:
    • 75
    • 300
    • 800
    • 2400
• Threshold for Lightness [14] – the entered value determines when an object is considered transparent and is therefore ignored when generating the Dieline. A value of 0.0 already ignores partially transparent objects. A value of 1 considers the entire Artboard area. The recommended value is 0.99. For Variable Content [18], select the desired placeholder – Database Field or User-defined Field – from which the value for the threshold should be retrieved.
• Despeckle (min. number of contiguous pixels) [15] – enter the minimum number of contiguous pixels surrounded by a different color to prevent individual stray pixels from being traced. For Variable Content [19], select the desired placeholder – Database Field or User-defined Field – from which the minimum number of contiguous pixels should be retrieved.
• Curve smoothness [16] – use the slider or enter a percentage value to determine the smoothing of edges and curves. The higher the selected value, the smoother the curves are generated, with fewer path points.

Figure 2: Values that must be present in the selected field for the Tracing Mode option

Additional Dieline

• Stroke Width [20] – enter the stroke width for the additional Dieline to be generated. For Variable Content [21], select the desired placeholder – Database Field or User-defined Field – from which the value for the stroke width should be retrieved.
• Line Shape [24] – select the line shape for the additional Dieline to be generated from the drop-down menu.
• Spot Color Name [22] – select the Spot Color to be used to add the Dieline from the drop-down menu. All Technical Colors assigned to the Cut Contour type are available for selection.
• Offset [23] – enter the desired offset of the Dieline from the Print Item. For Variable Content [25], select the desired placeholder – Database Field or User-defined Field – from which the value for the offset should be retrieved.

To experiment with this function, you can use the sample file "Sample_Add Dieline for Irregular Shape.pdf". The file contains a Print Item that is to be cut along its shape.

After applying the Fixup, the file "Sample_Add Dieline for Irregular Shape_End.pdf" is generated. A Dieline has been generated for the Print Item. The values shown in Figure 1 were used for this purpose.

Figure 3: Left: Original file; Right: Revised file with a Dieline generated for the irregular shape

Article Update: $PRODUCT_NAME_WORKFLOW 2.3.0 – 10/2026