Creator:  Zed
Date:  14. February 2012, 19:00

This is a very simple yet very useful script for making crop marks in an easier, more flexible way than the one built in Illustrator. You can make crop marks for one or multiple items, on one or multiple artboards, for each of the items or the entire selection, in the active layer or a new one, and put the crop marks in a group or leave them separated.

Update v1.01: You can now enter a negative offset.

How to use:

Simply run the script, select one or several items, choose your values, click on 'Create Crop Marks!'.

'Offset' is the distance between the item and the crop marks.

Let me know if you have any suggestion or bug report!

This is my very first script after half a year (on and off) learning how to code, around 7 years after I first heard about Scriptographer :)

cropMarks.js
Re: Crop Marks
Date:  15. February 2012, 14:17

Ah, a nice and useful script.

I guess most of the scripts posted here are so specialized and only working in their own niche that questions can be raised regarding their overall usefulness. Yours however, while being a simple one, is thought out improve on one of Illustrators built-in functions.

Good work!

Re: Crop Marks
From:  jambulingam
Date:  20. February 2012, 10:54

its not working in illustator cs5.1 version please check and help me to install

Re: Crop Marks
From:  Zed
Date:  20. February 2012, 11:24

Latest illustrator version is 15.0.2, and it's working fine for me... can you elaborate on your system specs? What Sg version are you using? Always check you have the latest one. Also, is the console reporting anything?

Re: Crop Marks
From:  Charlington
Date:  21. February 2012, 22:01

Perfect! I was trying to squeeze a wedding invitation design onto a transparency for screen printing, and Illustrator's cropmarks were too unwieldy to work in the space. You came through in a pinch!

Re: Crop Marks
From:  Zed
Date:  21. February 2012, 23:29

I'm glad it was useful for you Charlington! Thanks for the comment.

Re: Crop Marks
From:  jambulingam
Date:  22. February 2012, 08:06

i installed in >illustator>file>scipt>other script>and i select the js file but there is some earor coming. i think iam installed wrong way. please tell me how to install the script.
Thanks
Re: Crop Marks
From:  Zed
Date:  22. February 2012, 09:40

This is not a regular script, it is made for Scriptographer, an Illustrator plug-in.

Read this in order and you'll be able to use it:

Re: Crop Marks
From:  Luis Aguilar
Date:  19. April 2012, 20:49

¡Muchas Gracias! Estuve buscando literalmente por meses esta utilidad. Anteriormente tenía que ir a FreeHand y usar el BJ cropmarks para luego abrir el documento en Illustrator y puesto que 10.7 ya excluyó aplicaciones Power PC se hacía todo una pesadilla arrancando emuladores, etc. Es un trabajo que realmente merece ser pagado.

Crop Marks suggestions
From:  Luis Aguilar
Date:  19. April 2012, 21:24

Please:

The next version needs to:

1.- Accept negative values in "offset", so the lines may intersect to draw crosses. (excuse my bad english).

2.- A way to choose "registration" in color.

3.- Would not it be great to have the option to "ignore stroke weight" so that the crosses exactly fit the SIZE of the object(s)?

Re: Crop Marks suggestions
From:  Zed
Date:  20. April 2012, 11:48

Hey Luis, glad the script was useful for you.

I have just updated it, you can now enter a negative value in 'offset'. Download it again and see if it works well for you.

The registration color option, I don't know if it will be possible to implement. Illustrator treats the 'transparent' and 'registration' swatches in a different way to the rest. Looks like Sg can't access those...

About your 3rd request... that's not a bug, that's a feature! :) It exactly fits the size of the object + its stroke. If you have an object with an outline, don't you want the crop marks to be aligned to the stroke? This way it also gives you more flexibility. Try aligning the stroke of the object from 'inside' to 'center' and 'outside' or switch it off completely, re-apply Crop Marks and you'll see what I mean.