Prinergy includes the following trapping components:
- Automatic trapper using the PDF Trapper JTP
This trapping component is a JTP. It lets you do automatic trapping as a part of the refining process, using the trapping parameters set in the refine process template. Additional automatic trapping options are available in PDF Trap Editor.
- PDF Trap Viewer
The PDF Trap Viewer is included with the purchase of Prinergy. It is a plug-in to Adobe Acrobat that lets you view traps created with the automatic trapper.
- PDF Trap Editor
The PDF Trap Editor is an additional trapping component that can be purchased separately. The PDF Trap Editor is a plug-in to Adobe Acrobat that allows you to interactively create, change, and delete traps. The advanced features of the PDF Trap Editor, such as setting trap geometry, making keepaway traps, and trap path editing, are used primarily in packaging.
Trapping using these tools has the following advantages:
- Resolution independence is maintained.
- Prinergy can do spreads, chokes, and center traps.
- You can view traps in the PDF Trap Viewer plug-in.
- If you purchase a PDF Trap Editor plug-in, you can create and edit traps interactively.
If you need to adjust any traps, you can do the following:
- Retrap automatically with a different set of process template parameters
- Use the PDF Trap Editor to retrap an entire page or change individual traps
For more information on the trapping tools, start Adobe Acrobat, from the Help menu, select Plug-In Help, and then from the submenu, select PDF Trap Editor.
Note: The PDF Trap Editor is object-based, so it traps object to object or object to image. An object-based trapper is also sometimes called a vector-based trapper. Other types of trappers include raster trappers and hybrid trappers. A raster trapper traps rasterized data. Hybrid trappers combine raster and vector-based trapping.
Trapping using other methods
There are other methods and tools for trapping as described below. However, the content generator (the person creating the document) does not always know much about trapping, so it is best to leave trapping to the prepress shop or printer. As such, It is a best practice to trap inside Prinergy using the trapping tools.
If you trap directly in the layout application (QuarkXPress or InDesign), the following problems occur:
- Imported EPS vector art is not trapped.
- Colored text over images can only be spread, not choked.
- PostScript from trapped QuarkXPress documents must be poured as separated files, which means you cannot convert spot colors to process colors in Prinergy. InDesign has some of the same problems.
If you use a plug-in to QuarkXPress or InDesign, the plug-in adds the trapping parameters to the QuarkXPress or InDesign file. The traps are added to the page later.