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I am trying to identify crop mark in pdf.

pdfinfo command return the cropbox which is similar to media box

PDF with cropmark - 

Page    1 MediaBox:     0.00     0.00   312.00   474.00
Page    1 CropBox:      0.00     0.00   312.00   474.00
Page    1 BleedBox:     0.00    38.19   311.76   435.57
Page    1 TrimBox:      0.00    38.19   311.76   435.57
Page    1 ArtBox:       0.00    38.19   311.76   435.57

There is a small difference between CropBox and Bleedbox width and height hence

PDF with no cropmark issue - 

Page    1 MediaBox:     0.00     0.00   396.24   612.00
Page    1 CropBox:      0.00     0.00   396.24   612.00
Page    1 BleedBox:     0.00     0.00   396.24   612.00
Page    1 TrimBox:      0.00     0.00   396.24   612.00

No difference is identified between in CropBox and BleedBox

Is my understanding is correct?

user269867
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    Read [here](http://stackoverflow.com/a/13240546/1729265) for the meanings of those boxes. – mkl Aug 25 '14 at 14:04

1 Answers1

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Cropmarks would be defined the Trimbox. However, a PDF document is absolutely legal having a trimbox, but no cropmarks. You can, however display the cropmarks using the according action in the Print Processing tools panel (that would be in Acrobat X or XI).

FWIW, the Cropbox determines what part of the Mediabox is actually displayed. The Bleedbox is the bounding box for artwork and must be equal or bigger than the Trimbox (otherwise, your bleeds would not bleed beyond the cut border. The Artbox is the bounding box of the artwork.

Also, in a document with "live" cropmarks etc., they would be on their own layer and/or in their own separation plate. But you can not rely on the presence of that plate for cropmarks.

Max Wyss
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  • Indeed. Merely finding a Trim box does *not* "identify crop mark in pdf", because the PDF creator *may* not have known about how to use Trim/Bleed properly, and just manually put some marks inside the Trim box. Still, it's worth a try. – Jongware Aug 25 '14 at 21:50