Media, Printing & Publishing

Media and Publishing is an industry with well-established traditions and principles of production. The main concerns in printing and publishing are time and quality. Industry leaders have developed a set of special standards, picture formats, and color schemes. Using these standards, DataArt has been developing applications that permit template customization (filling in the values of variables and quick preparation of files that are ready for high-quality printing).

We have also developed applications that help manage sophisticated book and booklet creation workflows. For example, starting with a set of disjointed materials, the client can manage the process, approve every step and end with a print-ready product.

Solutions that DataArt has already delivered to clients or is currently working on are as follows:

• Production process automation system
• Variable Data Printing system which includes printing template design capabilities as well as a server solution for templates processing.
• Online design and workflow management package for creating & managing publications
• Online advertisement creation package
• Portal for information sharing between registered clients/companies

While working on these projects and communicating with our clients, DataArt has gained a unique understanding of the culture, working environments and technologies used by the leading firms in the industry. Areas of specific expertise include printing processes, variable data printing, Adobe Industry Standard and workflow management.

What this means for a client is that the DataArt contact person will always be a seasoned professional, very knowledgeable, with excellent communication skills and always available locally in the US.
 

Sample projects

Marketing Material Management tool

For a UK based customer DataArt has developed an internet based marketing tool that greatly simplifies the process of creating customised marketing and advertising materials for manufacturers, retailers and franchises.

Solution highlights:

• The system draws on centralised application servers, databases and asset repositories to enable market assembly, customisation and retrieval of advertising, sales and marketing materials.
• Local outlets need only an internet connection, web browser and a click of a mouse to create high quality print advertisements or documents and soon localised radio spots and customised video presentations.
• The Direct Marketing component within this system is similar to a Mail Merge within Microsoft Word.
• The system uses Adobe Graphics Server to render the templates. The server will create preview images and output file as a high-resolution PDF file.

Electronic Job Bag system

As part of one of the projects, DataArt has developed an electronic job bag system used to track jobs and campaigns through the agency from start to finish.
The following functionality is supported by the system:

• All the documents created can be sent for approval to any other user
• The system covers the job from the initial timing plan and creative briefs, on to contact reports, estimates, orders and press schedules, for uploading final copy
• It also enables users to upload any other documents connected to the job into a generic area to ensure that everyone always refers to the latest information
• Tasks can be assigned throughout the system enabling users to designate work to other users and keep up to date with their status
• The revision process can be done an unlimited number of times, while the system retains a full audit of all the work related to the job.

Variable Data Printing system

DataArt assisted a major printing technology company with the development of a VDP (Variable Data Printing) suite which includes a printing template design tool as well as a server solution for templates processing. Template Designer, an Adobe Illustrator Plug-in, was implemented to enable designers with basic experience of Adobe products to create templates while using all the power of Illustrator. Plug-in supports special tag language was used to parameterize text formatting. Templates are saved in a format based on open standard SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) and can be processed by the server application.

DataArt possesses valuable insights on a number of industry specific functions and problems:

• Printed material production cycle (from template to final high resolution output image)
• Full color printing and spot color printing
• Generation of template-based high-resolution TIFF or PostScript to be used by printing hardware.
• Deep integration with Adobe products (Illustrator, TypeManager, InDesign, PDF file processing and others). Adobe is clearly one of standard-setters in printing and design industries.
• Support of all types of fonts

Information exchange portal

For one of the largest advertisement agencies, DataArt has developed a portal for information sharing between registered clients/companies. While the administrators can add, modify and delete information, the client users can only view information. Every page of the site is entered from a back end administrator tool. The process of adding and formatting text, links, images, sound, and video is performed with a DHTML WYSIWYG editor that is capable of modifying the content of each individual page within the administrator's browser.