Making Tikz shapes/surfaces that don't appear in the PDF

Question

I want that my tex-editor shows me the 2-holes of a A4 sheet, but don't appear in the output PDF.

Note: I don't want to use % and comment the circle's out and compile it again. The reason is, that I will have thousands of .tex files and it wouldn't be efficient to compile every time twice.

If i make a circle with tikz, then the output PDF will have the 2 holes:

    \documentclass[11pt,twoside,german]{article}
        \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
        \usepackage[sfdefault,condensed,light]{roboto}
        \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
        \usepackage[paperwidth=210 mm,paperheight=297 mm,left=0mm,right=0mm,top=0mm,bottom=0mm]{geometry}
        \usepackage{eso-pic} 
        \usepackage{tikz}
    \usepackage{scrextend}
    \begin{document}
    \ClearShipoutPicture
        \AddToShipoutPicture{%
            \AtPageLowerLeft{%
                \begin{tikzpicture}%[line cap=round,line join=round,&gt;=triangle 45,x=1.0cm,y=1.0cm]
                    \clip(0,0) rectangle (21,29.7);
                    \draw [fill=black!10!] (1.2,10.85) circle (3mm);
                    \draw [fill=black!10!] (1.2,18.85) circle (3mm);
                \end{tikzpicture} 
            }
        }

    some text

    \vspace*{10cm} 

    some times i need this part

    \vspace*{2cm}

    \begin{addmargin}[2cm]{2cm}
    some times i add margins
    \end{addmargin}
    \end{document}

How can I hide these 2 holes at the output PDF, but see them in the tex-editor? Thanks for helping!

Nice trick, I'd comment out the part which creates the holes and compile it again — TVL, Feb 10 '21 at 08:41
Yes i did this first. But i will have thousends of .tex files. And going everytime inside the .tex file and compiling it 2 times will not be efficient. And also i could forget it to comment it at the end, which is not good — Bilal Yilmaz, Feb 10 '21 at 08:43
Good point and I got your point in showing them in the editor. I've never seen that somewhere in the setting of TeXStudio, at least. — TVL, Feb 10 '21 at 08:45
Silly but honest question; If you have the holes in the print, won't they be real holes once the page is hole-punched, so it doesn't really matter if the holes are printed? — Habi, Feb 10 '21 at 15:48
the A4 sheets will have pre-punched holes. So if the printer prints on the holes, maybe the colors will released and damage the printer. — Bilal Yilmaz, Feb 11 '21 at 08:04

DG' · Accepted Answer · 2021-02-10T11:00:44.187

You can put the holes on a separate OCG layer, that is not printed:

 \documentclass[11pt,twoside,german]{article}
        \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
        \usepackage[sfdefault,condensed,light]{roboto}
        \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
        \usepackage[paperwidth=210 mm,paperheight=297 mm,left=0mm,right=0mm,top=0mm,bottom=0mm]{geometry}
        \usepackage{eso-pic} 
        \usepackage{tikz}
        \usepackage{ocgx2}
    \usepackage{scrextend}
\begin{document}
\ClearShipoutPicture
\AddToShipoutPicture{%
    \AtPageLowerLeft{%
        \begin{ocg}[printocg=never]{holes}{holes}{1}
            \begin{tikzpicture}%[line cap=round,line join=round,>=triangle 45,x=1.0cm,y=1.0cm]
                \clip(0,0) rectangle (21,29.7);
                \draw [fill=black!10!] (1.2,10.85) circle (3mm);
                \draw [fill=black!10!] (1.2,18.85) circle (3mm);
            \end{tikzpicture}
        \end{ocg}
    }
}
some text
\vspace*{10cm}
some times i need this part
\vspace*{2cm}
\begin{addmargin}[2cm]{2cm}
    some times i add margins
\end{addmargin}
\end{document}

Caveat: You probably need to use Adobe Acrobat to print, since almost no other PDF viewer understands OCGs

You can switch the layers on

and off

Besides Acrobat (Reader), the Chromium/Chrome built-in PDF viewer acknowledges OCG settings for printing and viewing. — AlexG, Feb 10 '21 at 11:48
Thanks DG, it works that way! But if there is a tex-editor version for this, I would welcome it. Also thanks to AlexG! Because Im using Chrome a lot, this way is the best for me with OCG. As soon as I open the PDF and print it, it hides the holes automatically. Thanks a lot to both of you! — Bilal Yilmaz, Feb 10 '21 at 14:02

Making Tikz shapes/surfaces that don't appear in the PDF

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