HP SmartStream Designer Imposition (v114)

[lombert]

Updated to the latest HP SmartStream Designer Imposition (v114) and there are a change in how to Crop a file. Last version had Trim, Bleed and Media Box. Now there are just Trim and Media Box?!?



I don't knew how that going to work. All flows get ether a trim-pdf without the bleed thats is in the file, in the imposition or a Media sized-pdf that is the wrong size.

And if I tried to change it to Bleed Box, I get this error;

invalid crop value: Bleed Box. Must be Trim Box or Media Box

So a warning to update the HP SmartStream Designer Imposition to last version (v114). Maybe there is a corresponding update to SmartStream Designer that solveds this, but I don't knew..

Update; There is a updated SmartStream Designer version 11.4.17, thats have the new way to crop.

[sander]

I updated to the new configurator, not to the new SmartStream yet, and had to reverse back to the old configurator.

SmartStream 11.4.17 has this import options, but I always use bleedbox in my flows.


My conversation with SmartStream team:

- "I notice the Crop To Bleed Box function is not available anymore, unfortunately this is the only Crop To setting I use in my flows.
What are the thoughts of this decision?"

HP: "The reason it was removed from the configurators is that it was removed in Designer itself as well
The reason it was removed from Designer is the assumption that customers define a trim box, which is the size they want the final product to be trimmed to, and the bleed is the difference btween the Media box and the trim box.
If this is not the case, can you please explain why bleed box is needed?"

- "Simple enough, it was the only setting I could get the configurator to output files with bleed
I’ll recreate my flows with the new InDesign and configurator and see what’s happening."

HP: "That indeed was the only way, but that was due to a bug in how the files were imposed, and bleed box (instead of trim box) being the “workaround”
With 11.4. Setting a trim box to achieve a bleed between the trim box and media box should work as you expect it to."


Also, keep this in mind with the new SmartStream:
"When I opened your input PDF in Acrobat, I saw that the Trim Box that was defined is not symmetrical – this is something Designer does not support.
Designer is taking the left size dimensions and uses it for the entire document."


I did not test with SmartStream 11.4 and the new configurator yet, only with the previous SmartStream and new configurator and noticed it broke my flows. But with this communication in mind, and quote: "With 11.4. Setting a trim box to achieve a bleed between the trim box and media box should work as you expect it to." I bet it will work as we expected. If anyone already updated SmartStream and the configurator please report back if it works, it can saves anyone a lots of time.

[lombert]

I have updated both the configurator to (114) and the ID Designer to (11.4.17) but there is some problem with the serialnr so I can't get it work and test.

But I think this is a strange way to go. If the bleed box is present why not use it?

But in the configurator there is no "Bleed Box-input" as it is in the Designer, how is it planed to work?

[sander]

True. I was hoping for the Bleed 3mm (see screenshot) option in the configurator, not sure why the decision is made to force it to the mediabox.

"But in the configurator there is no "Bleed Box-input" as it is in the Designer, how is it planed to work?"

My best hope is it will work as told, and the bleed will be the difference between trim and mediabox. But for now, I'll chill down and let someone else do the testing

[lombert]

Now I have tested a few job and it works as expected.

If there is bleed in the pdf and you set the template to handle eg 3 mm bleed, you get that. So it's more to the impositions-template to have the correct settings..

[sander]

That's great news! Now I can upgrade without worries

Thanks!

[sander]

I can also confirm I successfully updated to SmartStream 11.4.17 and the new configurator. As lombert said, the trim/bleedbox thing is working as expected.

There's one thing that gave me some work. Before from within the configurator the Paper Size option was ignored due to a bug. Now it works, booh
So if you set the Paper Size to e.g. 458x318 and a imposition with 460x320 is going through then it will error out with a imposition won't fit paper error.

I already asked HP to reintroduce the bug as a option: use paper size as defined in imposition.

Other than that, easy update!

Edit: HP confirmed they added that as feature request for the next version.