Print-and-Cut PDF and EPS

A print-and-cut file is printed and then cut on the same job: a printer-cutter (Roland TrueVIS, Mimaki CJV), or a printer and a separate cutter that finds the print by its registration marks (Graphtec, Summa, Mimaki, a flatbed table). The RIP that drives it (Roland VersaWorks, Onyx, Caldera, SAi Flexi, Summa GoSign, Mimaki RasterLink …) prints the artwork and sends the paths in a spot colour named CutContour to the cutter instead of printing them.

Write one with File › Export › Export…, choosing Print-and-Cut PDF Files or Print-and-Cut EPS Files.

What it writes

Artwork is printed: everything on the layers set to Print, in process colours (CMYK, RGB or grey, as the layer's print colour). A layer you set to print as a spot colour of its own (a white ink, a varnish) keeps it.
Cut paths are the elements on the layers set to Cut: each a hairline (0.25 pt) in a spot colour, overprinting (so nothing under it is knocked out, and the RIP can take it away without leaving a gap), looking 100 % magenta on a proof. Filled shapes and lettering on a cut layer are cut along their outlines. The spot colour is named CutContour unless you choose another name for the layer.
Registration marks are printed: the marks drawn with the Registration Mark tool (on the Registration layer), in black ink alone (100 % K, which cutters' eyes read best) or in registration colour. The export can add marks of its own at the job's corners (below).
The file is the drawing at full size (1:1), as it must be cut, with a margin round it (a sheet: the sheet). PDF layers are the drawing's layers.

Layers

The export's options list every layer the drawing has something on, each with what it is:

Part	Does	Usually
Print	Printed as artwork	The standard Print layer, and any layer not below
Cut	A hairline in the spot colour named, overprinting: cut, not printed	Cut, Contour Cut, Weed, and layers named for a cut (CutContour) · Partial Cut (Kiss-cut) · Perforation (PerfCutContour) · Crease and other die-making layers (a spot named after the layer)
Registration marks	Printed, in black or registration colour	Registration
Leave out	Not written	Dimension (dimensions and guides), and the standard Drill, Etch, Engrave, Form and Window film layers

The spot colour's name is what your RIP looks for. The usual names:

Name	RIPs
`CutContour`	Roland VersaWorks, Onyx, Caldera, SAi Flexi and most others: a cut
`PerfCutContour`	Roland VersaWorks: a perforated cut
`Thru-cut`, `Kiss-cut`	Names many RIPs and cutting tables can be set to cut through or kiss-cut

Use a name of your RIP's own if it has one; the choice is remembered for the layer's name, so a layer called "Contour Cut" keeps its spot colour from drawing to drawing.

Registration marks

Draw the marks the way your cutter reads them with the Registration Mark tool, or leave it to the export: Add corner marks puts a mark at each of the job's four corners, set out from it by the offset:

Squares (OPOS style): a filled square, the mark Summa's OPOS and Mimaki's cutters look for.
L marks (Graphtec ARMS style): an L at each corner, its arms along the edges, the kind Graphtec's ARMS reads.

Set the mark size, line width and offset to what your cutter's or RIP's mark settings say, as their exact sizes vary from machine to machine. Many RIPs add their own marks as they print: then add none here.

On the machine

Open (or import) the file in the RIP's print-and-cut job, or place it in a hot folder set up for print and cut.
Check that the RIP sees the cut: VersaWorks and most RIPs show the CutContour path in magenta and list it as a cut.
Print, laminate if you need to, load the print on the cutter, and let it read the marks before it cuts.

EPS is for RIPs and older programs that place EPS: the spot colour is a custom colour (findcmykcustomcolor) with setoverprint, named in the file's DSC comments, as RIPs read it.