How to hold crop from Acrobat to InDesign

[ella138]

Hope someone can help with this. Here is the procedure I use and it doesnt seem to work for me.

1. I have a PDF file open in Acrobat.
2. I crop that PDF file using the crop tool in "advance editing".
3. I bring that cropped PDF file into InDesign.
4. I now cannot use the "fit to frame" feature because InDesign remembers the uncropped version of that PDF file. So it will fit the whole original uncropped file into the picture box frame instead of the cropped version that I wanted to fit.
5. Also, if I want to manually place the picture into the frame and I hold down the mouse so I can see the whole file, once again it shows the file before the crop.

Is there anyway I can permanently crop a file in Acrobat and have it totally replace the original file so I can use it more efficiently in InDesign. I have to do this many times every day in my job and I can believe there isnt a fix out there for this. I must be doing something wrong. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Ella

 

[MisterMe]

Huh?

It is totally unclear what you are doing. Are you placing these PDFs in InDesign before you edit them? Or, are you saying that InDesign ignores the cropping and uses the PDF in its original state? Are you saving your cropped PDFs within Acrobat Pro?

 

[Poogis]

From what your problem sounds like to me, when placing images you need to make sure 'Show import options' is ticked (it is off by default).

When selecting your pdf with crops, there should be a drop-down menu and you would need to select 'crop' - there is a preview to show you how it will import.

Hopefully this helps.

 

[SwiftLives]

In Acrobat....no. The crop feature in Acrobat is essentially a "layer" on top of the original file. It doesn't actually crop it.

I would think that the simplest solution would be to bring the file into InDesign and crop it by adjusting the bounding box.

If, for whatever reason, you can't do that, try bringing the PDF into Illustrator if it's a vector PDF, or Photoshop if it's not. Those programs should actually crop the file.

Good luck.

 

[ella138]

Sorry for not explaining myself properly,

I work for a newpaper where clients send in all kinds of pdf files for publishing. Often those files have the live area along with printer marks such as registration, crop, docket info etc.

I use the cropping tool in Acrobat Professional which is in the "advanced editing" tools and crop the pdf so that only the live area is showing. I then resave that pdf. It looks fine in Acrobat and all the info I cropped out is not showing. Only the live info is now showing.

Then I open my InDesign file (which is the program we use to create the pages of the newspaper). There I have an image box. When I go to place the cropped pdf into the image box in InDesign, it somehow remembers the orginial size with all the printer markings. Therefore I cannot use the option of "fit to frame" as it fits the image with all the printer markings instead of just the live area.

So basically, InDesign is ignoring my cropping from Acrobat Professional.
The "show import options" might be the solution where can I find that to tick it on???

Thanks for your help. We have been using QuarkXPress for so many years and are making the transition to InDesign and learning as we go.

 

[snickelfritz]

Try this:

Create frame for your content. (a frame is nothing more than a window or mask through which content is visible)
File > Place
Choose the file to import.
Cursor will now be loaded with the content in InDesign.
Hold down command and select the frame.
Click inside the frame.
You content will be placed within the frame, and cropped to the frame dimensions.
Resize the frame to fit the content.

additionally:
Right click the frame, and choose: fitting...frame fitting options

 

[jerryrock]

An alternative is to open and crop the PDF in Photoshop, save as PDF and then place in InDesign.

 

[Jim Campbell]

1. I have a PDF file open in Acrobat.

Belated, but I'm surprised no-one has mentioned that the crop tool in Preview appears to actually crop the image, so you could just use Preview rather than Acrobat for the initial management of your PDFs.

Cheers

Jim

 

[Dessert Whip]

Your problem is not using the "Show Import Options" when placing the pdf.

When you have selected the file that you are placing, before hitting "Open" look over to the left, there's a little check box called "Show Import Options". Check it and when you do click "Open" you'll be shown options including 'crop to crop', 'crop to bleed', 'crop to media', etc. Default is 'crop to bounding box', and I'm guessing that in most cases you're wasting your time cropping in the first place so if you use this method, the "crop to trim" selection (or one of the others) will do it for you (if the pdf was made by a pro).

Hope that clears things up…

 

[Shoesy]

You could just use the direct select tool to change the size of the pdf once it is in the frame and never crop it outside of indesign at all...

Just a thought

 

[lamemodem]

You could just use the direct select tool to change the size of the pdf once it is in the frame and never crop it outside of indesign at all...

Just a thought

I have to second this method. Otherwise you're making the process harder than it has to be.

 

[ella138]

Your problem is not using the "Show Import Options" when placing the pdf.

When you have selected the file that you are placing, before hitting "Open" look over to the left, there's a little check box called "Show Import Options". Check it and when you do click "Open" you'll be shown options including 'crop to crop', 'crop to bleed', 'crop to media', etc. Default is 'crop to bounding box', and I'm guessing that in most cases you're wasting your time cropping in the first place so if you use this method, the "crop to trim" selection (or one of the others) will do it for you (if the pdf was made by a pro).

Hope that clears things up…

Hey! That worked perfectly. Thank you so much. You've saved me tons of time.