[pdftex] pdf(pdflatex) vs ps(dvips) documents, crop marks, images

[Wilson, Peter R]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Elisabeth Baker [mailto:Elisabeth.Baker at aplac.com] 
> Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2003 1:42 AM
> To: 'pdftex at tug.org'
> Subject: [pdftex] pdf(pdflatex) vs ps(dvips) documents, crop 
> marks, images
> 
> 
> 
> Greetings,
> 
> I've seen some clear direction from this forum and it's very 
> helpful.  
> 
> I use pdflatex to make a4 documents for online use, but some 
> of them are also wanted for commercial printing, which means 
> they need margins and crop marks.
> 
> I tried simply using Melchior Franz' crop.sty, and I got 
> beautiful margins and crop marks, but only in the upper left 
> corner of the visible pdf output, which remains a4 sized! Did 
> I do something wrong?
> 
> I tried using dvips instead, but the graphics are almost all 
> png.  Reinhard clarified that, "If you want to use pdftex for 
> pdf and dvips for ps you have to provide two files for each 
> picture, but this is usually no problem."  I have enough 
> pictures and documents that it's enough of a problem that I 
> am determined to avoid it, even though I have had good 
> results from the recommended ImageMagick.
> 
> Reinhard also says,
> 
> > Yes, of course you can convert the final pdf file (produced 
> by pdftex) 
> > to ps using either acroread or pstoeps (which comes with xpdf). 
> > ...Just forget everything about ps until your document is ready.
> ...
> > You can avoid all this trouble if you use pdftex and create the ps 
> > file from the final pdf file as explained above.
> 
> Okay, so now I am back to the original setup, and I can 
> produce the original pdflatex-compiled pdf files. I want to 
> make pdf or ps files from them with margins and crop marks.
> 
> I'll be grateful if you can help me (a) use crop.sty 
> correctly to get a5 sized output with the a4 document in it, 
> (b) add margins and crop marks to the pdfs I've created for 
> online use, (c) create ps files with margins and crop marks 
> from the pdf files, or (d) do something else to accomplish this goal!
> 
> Best regards,
> Elisabeth Baker
> ###########################################

    Have you thought about using the memoir class? It has built in support for printing crop marks.

Peter W.