Quark released the newest XML study from the Gilbane Group called “Smart Content in the Enterprise: How Next Generation XML Applications Deliver New Value to Multiple Stakeholders.” The study, by Geoffrey Bock, Dale Waldt, and Mary Laplante, investigates the current and emerging landscape of XML applications and offers insights on best practices for moving XML use from the department level to broad adoption across an enterprise.

According to the Gilbane Group, “smart content” is a natural evolution of XML structured content that delivers rich, value-added functionality. Smart content is granular for flexible use, rich in descriptive information, useful across multiple applications, and meaningful for collaborative interaction. Among other significant points, the study concludes that organisations must consider delivery as a starting point for determining their strategy for creating smart content. The study also finds that businesses need to adopt tools that allow users to enrich content throughout the content lifecycle, not just at the point of creation.

“Gilbane is home to XML experts who have done a great job of identifying the compelling reasons for XML adoption across the enterprise,” said PG Bartlett, Senior Vice President of Product Management at Quark. “As the report shows, businesses must begin by defining the impact they want to have on their customers. Once defined, the next step is to identify how non-technical knowledge workers can best create the smart content that’s needed to meet the organisation’s objectives.”

“In our research, we see that when companies invest in making their content smart, the value of the content begins to speak for and prove itself,” said Geoffrey Bock, Senior Analyst, Collaboration for the Gilbane Group. “The key to creating smart content is to consider how content may be used for multiple purposes and design a data model, together with the creation and enrichment processes, to meet these goals. This opens the door to thinking about XML content in new and innovative ways, spurring adoption throughout the enterprise.”

The complete study is being made available by Quark here: http://publish.quark.com/content/GilbaneReport_SmartContent

by Rainer Heckmann, Director Product Marketing at Quark Inc.

When Apple introduced the iPad earlier this year I was instantly reminded of Apple's Knowledge Navigator video from the late 80s. (Those of you who are too young to know a world without the Internet, just search for “Knowledge Navigator” on YouTube .) I had fun watching that old commercial again. Although the Knowledge Navigator was just a cardboard mockup, the video showed the essential characteristics of the future of communication: digital, current, personal, and multimedia.

Today over a third of mobile phone owners, along with millions of iPad users, access news on their devices, either on the Web or through apps. For anyone who publishes news – newspapers, magazines or marketing departments - apps are beneficial:

    •    They enable a direct connection with the consumer
    •    They combine the best of the print and the Internet world - high-end design and interactivity
    •    App stores provide a distribution channel, and, in case you want to get paid for your news, enable billing, too

So far, so good.

But how do you create a newsreader app without developing it from scratch, and how do you actually publish your news to your app? To keep the effort at a minimum you should use proven technologies that are easy to employ.

Here are three essential steps to publish your newsfeed to the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch quickly and at low cost.

    •    Use an app framework to build your app. The programming has been done already and it only requires customisation to create a branded newsreader app.

    •    Convert your content into an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) format. RSS formats are specified using XML, and a RSS document is called a "Web feed.” Web feeds enable you to syndicate content automatically.

    •    Publish the RSS feed through either your Web site or through a professional news aggregation site. Most Web content management (WCM) systems provide RSS feeds out-of-the-box, and if you don’t have a WCM, you can use aggregation sites such as Google or NetNewsWire.

Your readers simply download your app and subscribe to your feed by clicking an RSS icon in the app that initiates the subscription process.

To learn more about how you can publish your own newsfeed join us for a free eSeminar:

Automatically Publish News to the iPhone and iPad

Wednesday 29th September 2010

Session 1:   3pm BST | 4pm CEST  Register here to attend this session.
Session 2:  5pm BST | 6pm CEST Register here to attend this session.

Web to Print: Template creation for dynamic publishing

A Quark publication in co-operation with

Web-to-print in 2010 is an opaque market. More than 200 companies are flying the flag for Web-to-print, yet produce and deliver very different kinds of software. The spectrum ranges from print order shops, online printing calculators, and digital printing links to sophisticated template editors and brand management systems. This has resulted in enormous hype with marketing  materials shouting catchphrases that are often dissimulating  the substantial changes Web-to-print brought about in the advertising and publishing sectors: Web-to-print publishing meets cloud computing.

Bernd Zipper has followed the Web-to-print market for a long time and has formulated the following definition:

“Web-to-print is the server-supported, online creation of individual print documents, including the necessary commercial processes."

One could also say that the most important system requirement for creating and ordering printing materials in the future will be the Internet. Web-to-print places these new opportunities directly in the hands of end users. Separate Internet interfaces make

them independent from external layout service providers and internal marketing profit centres. This evidently leads to decentralisation in the creation of  advertising resources. What is interesting about Web-to-print is that the opposite is also true: Like in cloud computing, all marketing processes, job guidelines and quality standards (not least corporate design) are stored in a central location. This information forms the basis for the Web-to-print system, which functions as a sort of gatekeeper to ensure compliance with pre-defined parameters. This ensures process integrity and quality consistency which could never be achieved with centralised specialist departments. Not to mention improved response time and cost reduction.

This increased quality is most evident when one looks at the printed materials that are actually produced. The time when fliers were thrown together in Word is over. If a print layout is first fed into the system with a system of rules governing it – together they constitute the so-called template – all users have to do is fill it with content online. If the print layout is correct, users can rely on compliant implementation of their corporate design, print output and layout quality - the Web-to-print system takes care of this.

Web-to-print is not an agency killer, however, but more of a magnet for new business, at least for agencies that anticipate the trend. The tasks involved in constructing and maintaining a Web-to-print platform are fundamentally of more value than those that are being replaced. For example, most larger agencies can no longer profitably produce layouts for business cards. Web-to-print offers the solution for both the agency and the client. If agencies want to be successful in this area, they must make considerable investments in knowledge and skills, since platform operation, project consulting and template construction will certainly not happen magically by themselves.
 
The choice of system is just as complex, due to the confusion in the market.  Two main aspects are crucial for agencies: First, the need for sophisticated ways to edit templates online and second, the integration into portals that are similar to online shops and offer enterprise functions, such as access management and approval processes. The technology used to create and edit the templates is key for agencies, publishers, and for the end user:

Existing layout documents already contain a lot of intelligence and know-how that should be incorporated in Web-to-print templates.
Template construction should be as easy as possible and experienced users of layout programmemes should be able to learn the process quickly.
The Web-to-print system should be integrated seamlessly into the conventional layout process. On one hand, it should be possible to input existing layout documents into the system, while on the other, the system should be able to produce other usable layout documents. This is especially important if one is to take advantage of the platform’s full automation capacity. The final finishing touches of the project would still take place in a conventional way.
Implementation quality in the areas of composition, micro-typography and output should be equivalent to quality obtained with a normal layout programme.

If these criteria are important to you, only solutions based on familiar layout programmes can be considered: Adobe InDesign Server and/or QuarkXPress Server. Systems based on .pdf or custom-developed technologies are not worse in principle, but they reveal some weaknesses when it comes to integration in existing layout environments. This is why large platforms in particular prefer systems based on conventional layout programmes, even if they are usually more expensive.

The layout technology chosen is crucial and determines the scope of the template. The organisational buy-in of the Web-to-print platform depends on the design and implementation of the layout technology, as well as on other factors such as user interface, ease of use and ordering options. Good templates take time and experience in planning, editing and quality assurance. The objective is always the greatest degree of flexibility, at least when it comes to corporate design. Considerable sums of money are often invested in a big corporate design portfolio, but this academic exercise is somewhat less pivotal to the actual success of a corporate design than the toolbox available to implement it. In this sense, Web-to-print has become an indispensable tool. Ideally, a Web-to-print template should always regulate the exceptions and prohibitions defined in the Corporate Design manual automatically. Think of the template as a corporate design framework reincarnated as a computer programme. This means that it will be difficult to include any parameters that are not valid in a print layout. This includes mainly aesthetic criteria, such as image selection and composition.

Example: Typography

Many of the following typography tips also apply to conventional print layout creation. They become particularly relevant in the Web-to-print environment, however, because users with no layout experience - and yet low tolerance for mistakes- are expected to produce acceptable results:

Syllable separation rules that do not require manual editing should be preferred, when possible. In tests, this works better than expected. In most Web-to-print systems, the final composition is visible only after rendering has been completed, which can make manual changes very time consuming. If certain words, such as company names, are not supposed to be separated, these must be entered in the list of word exceptions. A Web-to-print user must be able to assume that the system will create the ideal composition.
If the Corporate Design manual specifies that each paragraph must be followed by a half-line of space, use the “Spacing after” function. Many Word users are unfamiliar with inserting separate blank lines.
For lists, try to use the layout programme's own list functions as much as possible. Users can hardly be expected to place bullets, tabs and indents manually.
GREP styles and nested styles can also be components of a CD-compatible micro-typography scheme. For instance, they can be used for company names that are always written in capital letters or for paragraphs that always begin with three words in bold.
Everything that the user no longer has to do manually guarantees quality and reduces the need for explanations. The Web-to-print system is incorruptible and generally infallible when it comes to implementing the parameters.

The secret for correct use of formatting, however, lies in permissions over styles in the given textbox. In a box for content, for instance, headline styles should not be activated, and bold style should also be disabled if unwanted. A detail that is often overlooked is naming the styles. This should be done in the most straightforward and self-explanatory way possible. Depending on the target group, it is best to avoid foreign terms and specialist terminology.

Example: Image selection

Similar considerations apply to both images and text. Options should be kept simple and sources of error should be ruled out from the outset. Image editors in Web-to-print systems on the market have very different designs. They range from simple image selection tools to complex tools that allow free customisation of scaling and details. In the first case, there is no choice other than prepare all images according to the image box proportions. This gives you full control over the potential image details, but creating templates is much more difficult. You can also save considerable time if all image boxes have the same aspect ratio. 

Editors allowing the user to place the image freely inside the box are more in line with current practice. These allow images in portrait format to be placed in a landscape format box, as is common layout practice. If a frame is not completely filled, unattractive white lines usually appear. Depending on the system, you can implement graduated placement options and only allow proportional changes to the width and height. The image pool behind the box does not have to be set in stone: some suppliers offer links (adapters) to file systems and image databases. This is a good example of the closest possible association between Web-to-print and existing publishing environments.

Images chosen by the creator of the template are not the only ones that image boxes will accommodate. Franchise and syndicate organisations in particular like to upload their own images (such as those relating to a particular region) to the Web-to-print system. Whether this option is enabled is a matter of discretion. If it is, many quality assurance problems arise:

The uploaded images do not fit in with the imagery, colour scheme, image format or are not aesthetically suitable for other reasons. A computer system is unable to evaluate these criteria. This requires that a “human component” be involved to grant approval.

The images have quality problems (unfocused, grainy or dull colours) or resolution that is too low. While detecting poor image quality generally remains a human task, many systems offer control mechanisms for images with resolutions that are too low. It should also be noted that it is the effective resolution after placement in the layout which is crucial, not that of the source image. A check that rejects all images with a pixel density of 72 ppi (many camera images come this way) would not be practical, since the images could still be printed if placed in the layout at 30% of the original size.

Colour management is also involved: When creating the print file, the Web-to-print system must convert uploaded RGB images to CMYK. To do so, the system must have ICC-based colour management. This is the only way to prevent the majority of unprofessional errors from occurring, such as unprofiled RGB or a variety of different CMYK colour spaces. Layout programme servers have an advantage here, since these functions are already highly developed in the desktop versions. Nevertheless, PDF/X styles and the colour management of the document must be properly configured. This is yet another example of how Web-to-print demands specialist knowledge of a wide variety of disciplines.

Example: Print layout intelligence

Template creation really becomes a burning issue when it comes to dealing intelligently with user inputs. For instance, what happens if the user enters more text than there is room in the box? Should you set the system to just show a mere warning? Or are there better options? In the case of layouts governed by rules, the templates created are anything but “dumb”. A few examples:

Business card – To improve possible entry control, the title, name and position are spread over three textboxes (1). If the user enters a second title, the two other textboxes are shifted down – instead of a warning about too much text or an unattractive overlap of text. This also ensures that the spacing between the boxes always remains consistent.


Data sheet – In this template for a data sheet, there are two content areas that can be filled with different text content. Each area has a coloured background. Three images are placed along the side in the second area. The logo and address information appear along the bottom and cannot be changed by the user (1). If the user then adds more content in a text block than originally intended, a complex mechanism starts up (2). The text blocks are shifted downward while maintaining the spacing toward the bottom, and the upper colour field increases in height. The height of the logo block is fixed in accordance with the Corporate Design and cannot be reduced. This is why the lower colour field is reduced in height from the top. The placement of the three images is also matched to the lower colour field. This means that the central image becomes proportionally smaller (if it becomes too small, a colour bar can be inserted to block it out). The corporate design remains intact through all of these transformations.

Advertisement – Advertisements can accommodate a high degree of dynamism, provided that the Web-to-print system allows adaptation of the page size. If it does, page sizes can be adapted to the column widths of different newspapers. In the example above, the advertisement has been made wider: The large image is scaled accordingly, while the decorative bar to the left maintains a fixed width. The width of the continuous textbox is matches not only the width, if more text is entered, but also the height. A mechanism such as this is indispensable for job advertisements. In this case too, the protected areas around the logo and address remain accurate.

The examples show that designers and DTP content designers are evolving into programmers for sophisticated templates. Whether a template works properly is decided in the design phase. Not everything that looks good can be implemented, so extensive testing is required to refine a template down to the details. Ideally, testing should take place over a defined period and involve a wide range of individuals, as well as testing extreme parameters, for example excessively “dumb” ways of working. In order to test a system, the ways in which a design can change in Web-to-print practice must be considered first.  In this context, it is clear that there are now new ways for agencies and publishers to gain added value, and that such new possibilities hold more value and allow designers more creativity than the repetitive tasks performed by a Web-to-print system. So, everyone benefits from the new development. All's Well That Ends Well.

Georg Obermayr

This is the second article of a series on Dynamic Publishing by Georg Obermayr. You can read the first article here.

Autodata Ltd., Europe’s leading publisher and supplier of technical information for automotive professionals, has successfully switched to Quark® XML Author for Microsoft® Word to produce information for independent workshops through printed and electronic media.

Autodata Ltd., like many other technical information providers, was facing the challenge of moving from paper manuals to a more fast-pasted production cycle imposed by technology developments in the industry and now supplies regular monthly updates of their electronic products, which at present make up 90% of their sales. Mark Trepte, Autodata's Production Director, explains: “Vehicles now have a reduced ‘model life’. This means more models more often, which we have to research and supply information for. This presents us with the challenge of progressively reducing time to market.”

Autodata wanted a solution where authors did not have to get involved in the technicalities of mark-up languages and could deliver content in fast and accurate way. A thorough review of the market led Autodata to choose Quark XML Author for Microsoft Word.

“Our technical authors were already compiling information using Microsoft Word and therefore were familiar with its layout and functions. We did not want our authors to invest their time inserting the correct mark-up codes, but to focus on content. Equally we did not want to move them from the familiarity of Microsoft Word to the alien environment of an XML editor” comments Gabriele Ostermaier, Business Assurance Manager at Autodata.

“We took the view that Quark XML Author was the most user-friendly and suitable option. The authors are not confronted with code input and can focus on what they do best – writing. And this means a competitive edge for our business,” concludes Ostermaier.

Quark XML Author turns Microsoft Word into an XML authoring tool, helping to remove an important barrier to mainstream adoption of XML and dynamic publishing solutions. “We are pleased to see Autodata take advantage of the great benefits of intelligent content. Quark XML Author is an implement-and-go solution that requires very little training so companies like Autodata can save time and money and get their technical writers up to speed quickly. For businesses looking into producing information in a more cost-effective way, with reduced time to market, increased consistency and accuracy Quark XML Author is the answer” commented Matthew Wallis, Senior Vice President of Sales at Quark.

“Our relationship with Microsoft continues to allow us to bring superior XML authoring solutions to organisations across a range of industries so they can improve and automate their publishing processes," concluded Matthew Wallis.

Quark is a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner and member of the Office 14 Developer Advisory Council. Quark supports industry–specific schemas for life sciences, the intelligence community, manufacturing, and technical documentation that can be deployed out–of–the box for a quick start.

A in-depth case study detailing Autodata’s journey to XML and dynamic publishing can be found at http://dynamicpublishing.quark.com/en/customers/. To download a pdf of the story please click here

A Quark publication in co-operation with Cleverprinting

Hardly any other industry has undergone such rapid change over the past few years as the printing and media industry. DTP programmes like QuarkXPress have revolutionised what is possible in media production. Now the Internet, new programmes and new ways of working are introducing the next important step in media production: The advance of “dynamic publishing” cannot be stopped. It will fundamentally change the work done by agencies and designers.

With dynamic publishing, agencies and creative individuals will no longer – as previously – control the entire production process. Instead, they will become template creators, publishing project managers and platform architects. The publishing revolution is in full swing – and those who do not keep up risk losing step with the technology at some point.

Georg Obermayr is Technical Director at the ADVERMA agency and a user of Quark Publishing System 8. He highlights the opportunities, processes and requirements relating to dynamic publishing in this five-part series for the Cleverprinting Newsletter.

As well as this article, the Cleverprinting Newsletter contains much more information about DTP. With 14,000 subscribers, it is one of the most-read newsletters in the industry: www.cleverprinting.de/newsletter (In German).

In co-operation with Cleverprinting, QUARK is now publishing all parts of this successful series on its website, “The Dynamic Publisher” – an exclusive that has been translated into three languages.

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Web-to-Print
Part 3: Publishing systems
Part 4: Integrated publishing systems

Part 1

Introduction

Sometimes, a catchphrase is needed to cast light on insidious developments. The term “dynamic publishing”, for example, gives parallel developments like web-to-print and database publishing a standard conceptual structure. The term appears to be here to stay. This is urgently needed, because “dynamic publishing” is changing the very heart of the entire graphics industry.

To put it succinctly, dynamic publishing is the automatic creation of layouts. The content is also inserted into previously-created templates (layout templates) following sophisticated rules. This largely automates layout creation, saving time and reducing costs. On the other hand, this process should not be to the detriment of quality: Dynamic publishing systems are not intended to spit out monotonous industrial catalogues, but rather to create products with ambitious graphics and typography without compromise.

The key question is: “How will companies produce their marketing documents in ten years time?"

• How will they publish in print and on the web simultaneously?
• How will they keep labour-intensive designs up to date simply by pushing a button?
• How will they plan, design and create cross-media campaigns consisting of advertisements, online banners and videos centrally?
• How will they integrate and control publishing using the enormous variety of off-the-shelf business software (from ERP and CRM through BPM to PIM)?

Several of the above are already a reality and employed on a daily basis, while others will follow in the coming years. Ultimately, the topic probably still cannot be fully explored at this point in time.  Over the next few years, for example, Apple’s iPad and augmented reality could free up creativity in terms of how (journalistic) content is prepared and consumed. 

What is clear is that the focus of the stakeholders will shift: Advertising agencies will become suppliers of

• Frameworks for marketing strategies, corporate design guidelines and layout templates 
• Tools such as web-to-print systems, publishing solutions and content management environments.

Media production will increasingly occur within the companies themselves. Not necessarily only in the marketing department, but at each workstation, via the internet.

For agencies and media companies, this means both opportunity and risk. Companies which previously viewed themselves as “content and layout shops” for advertisements, invitations, business cards, etc. will face even more challenges in a dynamic publishing future. The industry needs to reflect on how it perceives itself. Again, in future there will be plenty of space for high quality products manufactured in small quantities, such as art books, calendars, image brochures and even branding concepts. Concentrating on these objects, which are not easily exchangeable, is the primary strategy for the industry. The second pillar will be IT. The producers of the next generation of publishing tools will exert considerable influence on what is possible in design and on creative licence.  With its centuries-long tradition in typesetting and graphic design, the media industry should not allow this influence to slip from its grasp. It would be naïve to believe that the graphics industry could develop these tools itself - they are much too complex. Instead, agencies and printing houses must drive development and should not let themselves be crushed between clients on one hand and IT companies on the other. In the ideal situation, media companies will become a kind of think-tank tasked with exploring how their clients can implement publishing IT.

This development also has implications for job descriptions. Many specialists working on layouts and pre-publication tasks are crossing borders and attempting to bring together topics such as pre-press technology, type setting, template creation, project consultancy and IT. The design process has also been changed by designers "thinking in templates". New job descriptions such as template builder, publishing project manager and platform architect are already appearing. Individuals who are at once generalists and specialists in as many sub-disciplines as possible will likely be most successful in this new and different professional world. At the same time, the graphics industry must ensure that it doesn't bleed out and lose its best people. There will be increased demand within client companies for people to support complex publishing systems. Education is soon to be affected and will have to reflect those changes: “conventional” media jobs (from media designer and graphic designer through to consultant) are insufficient to accommodate these shifts in tasks and skills– convincing new curricula and education structures have yet to be developed to meet these new needs. 

The individual components required for dynamic publishing have existed for a long time. Yet it is only now that the various key technologies are interacting with each other:

• In dynamic publishing, the content is most dramatically separated from its use in specific media. Databases house the content as text and images. Ideally, they are so closely knit that the company can use them outside the publishing world. XML is the interface between different systems and file formats. For example, print layouts can be changed automatically into websites by applying XML transformations. Of course, this requires that the systems used are equally open in relation to XML.The omnipresence of the Internet and dramatically expanded bandwidths are important factors for dynamic publishing. Ultimately, many of the systems are based on websites. This is reflected in our ability today to represent interfaces that resemble a desktop on the web.
• Cloud computing also plays a role, especially in web-to-print systems. In precisely the same way as you already save your emails and contacts in a “cloud”, you will be able in future to access your print templates from anywhere.
• The two juggernauts among layout programs, Adobe InDesign and QuarkXPress generally predominate in most high-quality dynamic publishing systems, but are transparent from the outside. Finally, the server versions of these tools are employed in these programs, and because they have no graphic interface, they are streamlined enough to process a large quantity of documents performantly and reliably. This process makes use of the same sophisticated typographical and design functions that are familiar from the desktop versions. This is why a layout program engine is usually superior to a PDF engine in terms of flexibility, capacity for integration and production quality, especially for more complex publishing applications.
• PDF/X and colour management form the basis of the modern pre-press stage. Dynamic publishing would not be possible without the standardisation and quality assurance that have been achieved in terms of print data creation and transfer.

The next instalments of this series explore how these technologies interact to shape a new generation of publishing solutions. One thing is clear, however: There is enormous potential for clients to save time and money and improve quality. The publishing revolution is gaining momentum and it won't slow down any time soon.

Georg Obermayr