What's new in ArtPro+ 18.1

CF2 support
You can now also use the common CF2 CAD format for one-up preparation and sheet layout in ArtPro+

• Like ARD files, one-up CF2 files can be opened and placed with an ArtPro+ Essentials license.
• Like MFG files, an ArtPro+ Advanced license is required to open layout CF2 files, replace stations and adjust bleeds.

One-up CF2 support
Opening or placing a one-up CF2 file is very similar to opening or placing an ARD file (ArtiosCAD). The CF2 file is placed in a separate "Structural Design" layer.

The separations present in the file will be shown as a Processing Step colorant (Crease, Cut, Dimensions and Text...). Non-supported line types will be mapped to ’Annotation’.

CF2 files have the same inspectors that exist for ARD files.

In the Structural Design inspector, the Print Item will always be ‘None’ because Print Items do not exist in CF2.

Layout CF2 support
It is now possible to open layout CF2 files and produce folding carton layouts with the ArtPro+ Advanced Edition. The behavior is similar to the MFG based flow.

You can define and apply station numbers to your layout CF2. When opening a layout CF2 file, bleed masks are automatically generated, and an overlap decision is made for the touching panels.

This can be manually overruled with the “Adjust Bleed” tool (like in the MFG based workflow).

Dynamic Marks – Repeat for Separations Mark
With the new ‘Repeat for Separations Mark’ you can create a repetition of the selected objects in all (or a subset of) the separations of the job.

Unlike the existing Repeating Mark, the new ‘Repeat for Separations Mark’ can contain artwork objects but also Text Marks and Custom Marks.

You can for instance create a square and a text mark in the first separation and repeat them for all artwork separations.

Note: In the next release, the remaining functionality of the Repeating Mark to place multiple copies of the mark, will be ported to a new Repeat by Count Mark. The repeating Mark will then be removed.

Dynamic Marks – New smart text variables
When creating a Text Mark, you can insert Smart Text

In the inks category of the local variables, 3 new variables are available:

• Ink Angles
• Ink Dot Shapes
• Ink Rulings

Dynamic Marks – Preview in Mark inspector
The mark inspector now shows a preview of the source content, the original object(s) that was/were used to create the mark.

Click on ‘Edit Content’ to make changes to the content of the mark.

Warp using legacy grid files
You can now warp objects using existing ArtPro GRID files or a PackEdge GRD files

• Choose Prepress, Warp, Place Warp Grid.. or File, Place and navigate to the .grid or .grd file you want to place
• The warp grid object is placed on a new layer called ‘Warp Grid’
• The grid is positioned centered on the Trim Box, showing the outer lines of the source grid
• You can move the grid using the transform tools
• Select the objects you want to warp
• Click the Warp button in the upper toolbar and define the settings to warp

After warping you get Warped Art and now the destination grid is shown. If you select a warped object, you can click unwarp to return it to its unwarped version.

New PDF Action Lists
Following PDF actions lists have been added in this release:

• Update Barcode
• Update Linked Image
• Update Placed Art
• Update Mark
• Reorder Layers
• Convert to CMYK
• Set Stroke Overprint
• Set Stroke Width

A full list of actions that are available in this release can be found here.

Moiré Detection
This new quality control tool allows users to detect potential screening problems. Enable ‘Moiré Detection’ to highlight areas with potential screening conflicts or without screening.

Several moiré generating conditions are checked, the ones that do not apply for the file are greyed out. You can manually toggle each condition on and off to only look at specific conditions. Only visible objects and separations are considered.

Rich Black
Produce a darker black by overprinting selected black areas with the color you specify.

• Make a selection of objects to apply Rich Black to
• Click on menu Prepress, Rich Black
• Select the separation you want to enrich
• Specify the ink or mix of inks you want to add
• Enable ‘Only create Rich Black if no other separations are present’ to exclude objects that are not pure
• The rich black objects are created in a separate Rich Black layer, using the defined color in Darken blend mode

Trapping improvements
When you enter Trapping mode with Trapping Suggestion enabled, the trap direction has become more consistent since version 18.0.1: there is less disruptive trap direction switching.

As of version 18.1, when you want to modify the entire trap chain in one go, this is possible in the Trap mode.

Using the ‘Trap Processing Steps’ option you can choose whether Processing Steps should be included in the Trapping Suggestions or not. When the option is disabled, all Processing Steps are not visible in the Trap mode and will not be considered for trapping.

Because Processing Steps are not available in Normalized PDF, this option is only visible when working with a PDF+ file.

Convert to PDF+
You can now convert a Normalized PDF file to a PDF+, allowing you to apply PDF+ marks to your file.

When your current document is a Normalized PDF file you can use File, Convert to PDF+ to convert your document. Several changes are made to the document during conversion (see documentation for details). You can’t revert the conversion during the session. Once you save, you can’t go back.

Text Recognition
With the ‘Convert Outlines to text’ function outlined text can be converted to live text. The following additional languages can now be recognized from this version onwards: Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Greek (Modern), Hungarian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Turkish.

Magnetic measuring
The Dimensions Tool (shortcut D) is now magnetic to measure more accurately. It snaps from and to any point you may want to measure between, no selection is required.

Path Select Tool: Transform support
With the existing Path Select tool, it was already possible to select and delete paths inside a compound. Now it is also possible to first select paths of a compound and then switch to the Transform Tool to move, rotate, scale or snap to the crosshair.

Clip on Page Boxes
You can now clip the contents of a file to the size of a chosen page box. Make a selection and open menu Object, and choose Clip. All defined page boxes are enabled.

After clipping, a clipping mask is created with the size of the chosen page box. Any data outside is clipped away, however, the objects remain unchanged.

Fix Text box reflow
The Split Erratic Text Boxes option in Clean has been renamed to ’Fix Text Box Reflow’. This feature has been optimized so it can, under certain circumstances, keep text together in a text box, with higher editability than before.

ArtPro Quick Look
The ArtPro+ installer on Mac now includes a Quick Look for ArtPro files. Installing this plugin ensures that a preview is available in Finder for ArtPro files generated with separated preview in ArtPro 18.