Illustrator: How to print things outside of the artboard?

Question

I'm basically trying to accomplish this:

1. Print art that lies on AND outside of the artboard
2. while maintaining the dimensions of the artboard when file is sent as a PDF (art outside of the artboard is not desired here)

Is this possible?

Long explanation: The reason I need to do this is because the artboard needs to be certain dimensions when sending the PDF. BUT when printing, I need to include extra art that will not fit onto the artboard. When the file is saved, it only should include one artboard, so I want to avoid the extra steps of having to create an extra board just for the print out, then have to delete and save it (I know it doesn't sound like a big deal, but others will have to do this, and they get confused. Also, we deal will hundred of files a day, and the extra steps add up.) Is there any easier way to do this that I'm just not thinking of?

This is starting to sound like a bit of riddle. Any help or other alternatives would be appreciated. Thank you!

Answer 1

Create a second artboard containing everything you wish to print.

Keep the original artboard.

Artboards can overlap.

This would allow you to export/save Artboard 1 for a PDF and it would not include anything outside of it. Then you could print Artboard 2, which is larger, and print everything outside Artboard 1.

If you need only 1 artboard per file...

Create a file containing everything and the large artboard. Then create a file containing the smaller artboard and use File > Place to link to the larger file. Simply position the linked image correctly on the smaller artboard. Editing the larger artboard file will cause AI to ask if you want to update the link in the smaller artboard file. Do so, and the file remain identical in terms of artwork. -- Or vice versa, place the smaller artboard file into the larger artboard file.

Answer 2

My priority would be the printing aspect, which normally is more demanding than an electronic publication.

1. Prepare the document as you normally would, but with well-established left and right pages.

2. Define your bleed parameters, external and internal margin.

3. Bleed the elements as you need.

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4. And for the electronic part, just generate a PDF with no bleed at all. It is just a matter of preparing a PDF setting with this parameter. RGB colors, smaller resolution, and no bleed.