Creating a Die-Line

To create a die-line, you need to use a special swatch. Create a new swatch in either Indesign or Illustrator (whichever you are working in) and set the values as follows: Color Type should be Spot, Color Mode CMYK, Swatch Name should be Die-line, and the value can be whatever color you want it for your design. We recommend just using 100% magenta and 0% of every other color to make it easily recognizable.

Assigning the Die-line swatch to your die shape

Select the object that you want to be the die shape for your design, and assign the Die-line swatch to the stroke of the object.

Positioning the Die-line object

The object that has the Die-line swatch applied should be on top of other objects. To avoid confusion, you can create a new layer on top of the other layers and move the die-line object to that layer.

Setting the Die-line attributes

The die-line needs to have a special attribute set so that it will work correctly. If you open the attributes window in either Indesign or Illustrator and select the die-line object, you can set the checkbox that reads 'overprint stroke'.