catalogue production automation – case studies · the catalogue, creation of a proposal design,...

Catalogue Production Automation – Case Studies

K A R L - J O H A N G R A H N

Master of Science Thesis Stockholm, Sweden 2006


K A R L - J O H A N G R A H N

Master’s Thesis in Publishing Technology (20 credits) at the School of Computer Science and Engineering Royal Institute of Technology year 2006 Supervisor at CSC was Alex Jonsson Examiner was Nils Enlund TRITA-CSC-E 2006:063 ISRN-KTH/CSC/E--06/063--SE ISSN-1653-5715 Royal Institute of Technology School of Computer Science and Communication KTH CSC SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden URL: www.csc.kth.se


AbstractCatalogues are produced on a regular basis to promote products or services. An automation of this production saves both time and cost for the producer. There is only a limited amount of research on automated layout and even less research on catalogue production automation.

The purpose of this project was to develop a scheme for a more cost effective catalogue production through a more automated catalogue process. The report describes processes and tools for improving the catalogue production, especially the creative part. The research strategy was to combine a qualitative approach with a quantitative approach. Qualitative findings from a literature review and case studies of Japanese publishing companies were supported to a limited degree by quantitative findings from a worldwide email survey.

The case studies indicate that catalogue production follows this order: planning of the catalogue, creation of a proposal design, revision of proposal design, production of actual catalogue, print proof, corrections and final print. Designers do not want to automate creative work or interaction with customers, but want to automate repeti-tive and tedious work. Automatic catalogue production is applied to catalogues with a strict layout. Catalogue data are managed using databases and spread sheets. Layout is based on templates. Data are flowed from the source to a template with scripts and plug-ins for design software.

The conclusion is that catalogues with a strict layout based on grids, rules, or tem-plates can be automated to a high degree. Catalogues with a creative, random layout, are difficult to automate, because their layout is mainly based on intuitive knowledge. This intuition is difficult to describe in a mathematical language to be simulated by a computer. A research suggestion for a future publishing system is described. The idea is to combine a database-management system with research results from automated layout to produce arbitrary printing products with arbitrary layout from user prefer-ences. This type of system would be of high value to vendors wanting to produce professional catalogues with ease and to a low cost.

Automatisk katalogproduktion – fallstudier

SammanfattningKataloger produceras regelbundet för att sälja produkter eller tjänster. En automa-tisering av denna produktion sparar både tid och pengar för producenten. Det finns bara en begränsad mängd forskning på området automatisk layout och ännu mindre forskning på automatisk katalogproduktion.

Syftet med detta examensarbete var att utveckla en plan för en mer kostnadsef-fektiv katalogproduktion genom en mer automatiserad katalogprocess. Rapporten beskriver metoder och verktyg för att förbättra katalogproduktionen, speciellt den kreativa delen. Forskningsstrategin var att kombinera en kvalitativ ansats med en kvantitativ ansats. Kvalitativa data från en litteraturstudie och fallstudier av japanska publiceringsföretag fick visst kvantitativt stöd från en enkät utförd via epost.

Fallstudierna antyder att katalogproduktionen följer detta mönster: planering av katalogen, skapande av förslag, revidering av förslag, produktion av faktisk katalog, provtryck, korrektur och slutligt tryck. Personer som arbetar med design vill inte automatisera kreativt arbete eller interaktion med kunder, men vill automatisera upprepande och ansträngande arbete. Automatisk katalogproduktion tillämpas på kataloger med en strikt layout. Katalogdata bearbetas med hjälp av databaser och kalkylblad. Layout baseras på mallar. Data skickas från källan till en designmall med hjälp av skript och insticksprogram till design-mjukvara.

Slutsatsen är att det är möjligt att uppnå en hög grad av automation i katalogpro-duktionen om katalogerna har en strikt layout baserad på rutnät, regler eller mallar. Kataloger med en kreativ, slumpmässig layout, är svåra att automatisera, eftersom deras typ av layout främst är baserad på intuition. Denna intuition är svår att beskriva i ett matematiskt språk så att en dator kan simulera den. Ett förslag för ett framtida publiceringssystem är beskrivet. Idén är att kombinera ett databashanteringssystem med forskningsresultat kring automatisk layout för att producera godtyckliga tryck-produkter med godtycklig layout utifrån användarens preferenser. Detta typ av system skulle vara av stort värde för försäljare som enkelt vill producera professionella kataloger till en låg kostnad.

Preface

This is a Master’s Thesis in Computer Science and Engineering, with a specialization in Publishing Technology, at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden. The study was conducted in Tokyo and Saitama at Shibaura Institute of Technology (SIT), Japan, from October 2005 to March 2006.

I would like to thank my supervisors – Prof. Akira Aiba at SIT and Tech. Dr. Alex Jonsson at KTH – for their guidance and support.

I am grateful to Mr. Ryoichi Yamauchi at Japan Association of Graphic Arts Technology (JAGAT) for arranging meetings with companies for my case studies and for inviting me to the exhibition PAGE2006. I am grateful to the following companies for their warm welcome and for letting me do case studies of their production: Vanfu, Toppan Editorial, Koyo Media, Tokyo Business Association of University Co-Opera-tives and one anonymous company. The following companies kindly permitted me to reproduce their catalogues: Dustin, inWarehouse, Rusta and Sport-Thieme. Friends and people in the printing industry kindly helped me with respondents for the survey and with literature.

I thank every one in Aiba Laboratory for helping me in my research and daily life in Japan, especially Mr. Hideki Sorakado for translating letters and co-ordinating contacts with Japanese companies.

Marcus Ericsson, Henrik Gustafsson, Karin Höckenström and Alfred Mosskin were helpful in criticizing and suggesting improvements for my project. They were part of a supervisor group at KTH carried out at a distance.

Last, but not least, I thank my family and friends for continuous support and encouragement.

Vilhelmina in May 2006Karl-Johan Grahn

Content

1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.1 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.2 Benefits of Automation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.3 Problems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.4 Delimitations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31.5 Research Strategy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31.6 Aims of this Study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31.7 Document Structure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2 Research Strategy: A Qualitative and Quantitative Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52.1 Overall Strategy in Brief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52.2 Qualitative and Quantitative Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62.3 The Case Study Method. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72.4 Critical Incidents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122.5 Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142.6 Ethical Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

3 Literature Review: Page Layout and its Automation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223.2 An Overview of Research in Automatic Layout Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . 243.3 Core Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253.4 Content-Driven Versus Layout-Driven Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273.5 Constraint Satisfaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293.6 XML Techniques. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313.7 Refined Problem Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

4 Results: Catalogue Production Automation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344.1 Catalogue Creation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344.2 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

5 Compilation of Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485.1 Results of the Literature Review. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485.2 Case Study Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495.3 Critical Incidents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505.4 Survey Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

6 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526.1 Automation of Creative Work. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526.2 More Planning and Better Data Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536.3 Measurement of Successful Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536.4 Generic Layout System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546.5 Answers to the Original Problem Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 556.6 Research Critique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

7 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

8 Suggestion for Future Research. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Glossary of Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Appendices:

A Complete Narrative of First Case Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A–1Details. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A–1Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A–1Narrative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A–2Lessons Learned for Research Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A–5Lessons Learned for Field Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A–6Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A–6

B Complete Narrative of Second Case Study at Vanfu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B–1Details. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B–1Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B–1Narrative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B–2Lessons Learned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B–5Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B–5

C Transcript of Interview with Mr. Nakajima Yuji from Toppan Editorial . . . . . C–1Details. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C–1Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C–1Narrative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C–2Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C–4

D Complete Narrative of Third Case Study at Koyo Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D–1Details. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D–1Preparations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D–1Narrative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D–2Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D–9

E Complete Narrative of Visit to the Exhibition PAGE2006 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . E–1Details. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . E–1Purpose of Visit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . E–1Short Interview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . E–2Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . E–2Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . E–3

F Introduction Letter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F–1

G Field Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . G–1Tokyo Business Association of University Co-Operatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . G–1Japan Association of Graphic Arts Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . G–2

H Survey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . H–1Pre-Notification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . H–1

Cover Letter and Questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . H–2Tracking Spread Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . H–5

Photo Insert

Figure 1.1.a Reproduced with permission from Dustin ABFigure 1.1.b Reproduced with permission from Rusta ABFigure 1.1.c Reproduced with permission from inWarehouse ABFigure 3.3.a Reproduced with permission from inWarehouse ABFigure 4.2.a Reproduced with permission from Dustin ABFigure 4.2.b Reproduced with permission from Rusta ABFigure 4.2.c Reproduced with permission from Sport-Thieme GmbHFigure 4.2.d Reproduced with permission from Sport-Thieme GmbHFigure 4.2.e Reproduced with permission from Dustin ABFigure D.1 Reproduced with permission from Tokyo Business Association of University Co-OperativesFigure D.4 Reproduced with permission from Tokyo Business Association of University Co-OperativesFigure D.5 Published with permission from Tokyo Business Association of University Co-OperativesFigure D.6 Published with permission from Tokyo Business Association of University Co-Operatives

1

Chapter 1

Introduction

This is the introduction to this project. The idea was to study the production of catalogue layout and how to automate it. The benefit of automation is primarily a decrease in cost and in time by shortening lead times in production. The project was delimited to the creation of layout for catalogues. The research strategy was to receive qualitative findings from case studies and to support these with quantitative findings from a survey.

1.1 BackgroundCatalogues are produced on a regular basis to promote products or services [Fig-ure 1.1]. For field representatives, catalogues are an irreplaceable medium during the customer discussion. Wholesale dealers use catalogues to supply their clients with the correct products.

Figure 1.1 Example of product catalogues being studied in this projecta. Page from the Dustin catalogueb. Page from the Rusta cataloguec. Page from the inWarehouse catalogue

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a. b. c.

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Readers of the catalogue assume by themselves that the information in the catalogue is the most recent one. The catalogue is important for marketing of products in general, and is updated and printed at regular intervals. It is important to quickly be able to produce a catalogue with the latest information when asked for.

1.2 Benefits of AutomationThe benefit of automation in catalogue production lies primarily in an increase of efficiency in the production of layout of repetitive information by shortening lead times. Another benefit is cost savings, since more work can be done with fewer staff members. If repetitive work can be automated, more time can be spent on creative work. If the production can be made more automatic, it will also be more efficient.

1.3 ProblemsAn earlier study by the author (Grahn, 2005) indicated that product catalogues are produced manually to a high degree. Information is copied manually from its source and pasted manually on its page. This previous study inspired this project and raised a number of important questions:

1. Which part of the production is most time-consuming?2. Which elements of the creative production can be automated to a higher

degree than what is done today?3. What does a higher automation need from the producer and from the

customer?4. Can the production be automated to a higher degree with present technique,

or is further research and development necessary?

The Discussion chapter contains answers to the above questions.The theoretical part of the problem of automated layout was as follows, simplified

to its most basic level:Given is a set of blocks of different form, where each block contains information

about a product, and a bound area on a page where the blocks are to be placed. The problem is to place the blocks optimally in a given container, while rendering the least possible amount of free space. Adding to these algorithms, a number of consumer preferences which in turn will result in the optimal visual presentation and in turn the largest amount of sales.

The theoretical part of the problem of automated layout is reviewed in Chapter 3: Layout and its Automation.

3

1.4 DelimitationsThe overall process of creating a catalogue includes merchandising, positioning, proposition, creative execution, new customer acquisition, customer list communica-tion, fulfilment, database and post analysis. This project was delimited to the creative execution of printed catalogue production, specifically the design, layout and page production [Figure 4.1, page 35]. Thus, this study was focused on producers, not buyers, of the catalogue. Catalogues, in turn, were restricted to frequently printed catalogues promoting products [Figure 1.1, page 1].

Since the study was aimed at catalogue production, the theoretical problem of automated layout was restricted to the case of a limited number of blocks of a certain form, placed on a bound area of a certain form. This special case could later be extended to a general case with unlimited number of blocks of arbitrary form placed on an area of arbitrary form.

1.5 Research StrategyThe research strategy was to combine a qualitative approach with a quantitative approach. The results consist mainly of qualitative findings from a literature review, three case studies of Japanese printing companies, one interview and one exhibition visit. These qualitative findings were supported to a limited degree by quantitative findings from an email survey. Only 7 respondents answered the survey, giving a re-sponse rate of 13 per cent. Therefore, this study is mainly characterized as qualitative.

The qualitative case study and the quantitative survey served as a method triangu-lation of the same problem. The use of more than one method in the research ensured that any variance reflected in the results was that of the characteristics and not of the methods.

1.6 Aims of this StudyThe purpose of this study was to develop a scheme for a more cost effective catalogue production through a more automated catalogue process.

The specific objectives of the research were to:

• understand how catalogue production is carried out in its real context,• describe processes and tools for improving the catalogue production,• make the results valid for catalogue producers worldwide.

1.7 Document StructureChapter 2 is a detailed description of the research strategy and used method. Chapter

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3 is the result of the literature review on automated layout, ending with a refined problem statement. Chapter 4 is about catalogue production automation specifically, with results from the empirical study. Chapter 5 is a compilation of the results from the empirical study. The final chapters are the Discussion, the Conclusions and the Suggestion for Future Research. The full details of the results and secondary data are found in appendices.

For overview information about this document, please read the Abstract and the Conclusions together with the chapter summaries at the beginning of each chapter.

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Chapter 2

Research Strategy: A Qualitative and Quantitative Approach

This chapter explains the research strategy and the used methods. The overall research strategy was to receive qualitative data from case studies, and to get quantitative support for these data by doing a survey. Ethics had to be considered since the research was focused on meeting people.

2.1 Overall Strategy in BriefThe first phase of the research was to do a literature review (Chapter 3) of available research on automated layout to further specify the research objectives. Next, case studies were done to understand how catalogues are produced in reality. An interview was also done with an employee at Toppan Editorial Communications Co., Ltd. A narrative of this interview is found in Appendix C: Transcript of Interview with Mr. Nakajima Yuji from Toppan Editorial. A visit was also made to a printing exhibition called PAGE2006. A narrative of this visit is found in Appendix E: Complete Narra-tive of Visit to the Exhibition PAGE2006. From the case studies, the interview and the exhibition visit, qualitative data were received. These qualitative data were sought quantitative support from an email survey of catalogue producers [Table 2.1]. This research strategy was also used by Amaratunga and Baldry (2001).

The choice of case studies was really a strategic one, because it allowed for many methods depending on the circumstances and the special requirements of the situ-ation (Bell, 2000: 16; Denscombe, 2000: 43-44). Examples of such methods were interviews and observations.

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2.2 Qualitative and Quantitative ApproachEvery research problem can be approached from two perspectives: qualitative and quantitative.

2.2.1 Qualitative ApproachIn qualitative research, the attitude is unprejudiced and the researcher tries to confront the situation as if it always was new and aim for a complete understanding of particular relationships. The aim is to receive the most complete picture possible of the situation. A qualitative approach is characterized as an analytical description of few individuals and many variables.

The result is a complete description of the research objective, and is valid in the specific environment, circumstances and point of time.

Qualitative research was carried out in this project to explain phenomenon and discover theories (Olsson and Sörensen, 2001).

2.2.2 Quantitative ApproachQuantitative research usually emanates from a theory. In this project, the theory was founded on earlier research results through a literature review and results from a qualitative approach.

The theory is structured and the whole theory or parts of it is formulated in hypotheses or clearly defined aims. Against this background the quantitative project can be planned and carried out empirically.

The next phase is a statistical analysis and evaluation, later being related to the posed theory.

The results are based on a large number of individuals and are delimited to few variables. The results are aimed to be general.

Quantitative research was carried out in this project to confirm qualitative find-

Research phase Output

1. Literature review Research objectives

2. Pilot study Realization of research objectives. Understanding of context.

3. Case studies Exploratory description of production

4. First analysis Initial qualitative findings which form the survey questionnaire

5. Questionnaire survey Quantitative support for qualitative data

6. Second analysis In-depth analysis of qualitative and quantitative findings, theory building and verification

Table 2.1 Outline of the research strategy, also used by Amaratunga & Baldry (2001) and noted by Yin (2003: 150-151).

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ings (Olsson and Sörensen, 2001).

2.3 The Case Study MethodIn the case studies, real-world events were integrated with the needs of a data collection plan. Data were collected from people and institutions in their everyday situations. In this sense, there was no control of the events under study (Yin, 2003).

The rationale for choosing the case study method was to do actual observations of how catalogue production is done. The case studies covered contextual conditions – believing they were highly relevant to the phenomenon under study. As will be noted in the conclusions of the literature review, the majority of the research up to 2006 had been focused on technical issues when producing layout – what was missing was research about the whole process itself and issues related to workflow and human interaction.

The aim of the case study was simple to know what was going on when producing layout for a catalogue. The purpose was to gather information, so that a description of what is going on could be made. The important point was to do a direct observation of the event, and to take a broad look at the phenomenon under study.

An experiment would separate the phenomenon from the context. A history would not focus on contemporary events. A survey would take a limited look at the phenomenon, restricted by the questions asked. Thus, the case study method was chosen because the problem was to investigate a “how” question, there was little control over events, and the focus was on a contemporary phenomenon within a real-life context (Yin, 2003).

A benefit of beginning this project with case studies was that the review process could take place during the next phase of doing the survey.

Due to the time limit, this study was restricted to performing three case studies. The first case study was done at an anonymous company. A narrative of this case is found in Appendix A: Complete Narrative of First Case Study. The second case study was done at Vanfu, Inc. A narrative of this case is found in Appendix B: Complete Narrative of Second Case Study at Vanfu. The third case study was done at Koyo Media Co., Ltd. A narrative of this case is found in Appendix D: Complete Narrative of Third Case Study at Koyo Media. The individual cases were holistic within this multiple-case study design.

Some concerns about the case study method were lack of rigour, lack of basis for scientific generalization and took too long time to carry out. The first and third problem was addressed by careful study of the methodological text by Yin (2003), and by working out a research design and a case study protocol. The answer to the second problem is that case studies, like experiments, are generalizable to theoretical propositions and not to populations. The goal is to expand and generalize theories. In this sense, the aim of this case study was to broaden the understanding of contextual conditions and lay the foundation for a sequential survey to identify common prob-lems when producing catalogues.

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2.3.1 Research DesignThe purpose of the research design was to help to avoid the situation in which the evidence did not address the initial research questions. It consisted of five compo-nents: a study’s questions, its propositions, its unit of analysis, the logic for linking the data to the propositions, and the criteria for interpreting the findings (Yin, 2003: 21).

Study QuestionsA case study is most appropriate for “how”, “why” and exploratory “what” questions:

• What is going on during the production of a catalogue?• How is layout done?• How is data managed?

Study PropositionsThe purpose was to investigate the process of doing layout in relation to time and resources. The topic was also the subject of exploration.

Since the study was an exploratory one, there was no actual need of a proposition. The proposition, nevertheless, was that not only the technology, but also the human factor was important in making the process more automatic or not.

A successful exploration was one where all relevant details about layout produc-tion were covered in relation to time and resources.

Unit of AnalysisThe unit of analysis was the process itself of making layout for a catalogue.

Time boundary was from the creation of ideas for the catalogue to the stage when it was ready for printing.

The immediate topic was the people and the technique for making layout of catalogues. The context was the catalogue process.

Linking Data to Propositions and Criteria for Interpreting the FindingsInformation from a case would be used to analyse each part of the production in rela-tion to time and resources, to determine whether an action takes unreasonable time or resources to carry out. This exploratory study would indicate if the proposition was true or false.

2.3.2 TheoryAny literature on automated catalogue production was not found. Any new empirical study would assume the characteristics of an exploratory study. An exploratory study should nevertheless be preceded by statements about (a) what was to be explored, (b) the purpose of the exploration, and (c) the criteria by which the exploration would be judged successful (Yin, 2003: 30).

The case studies would show how layout was done in relation to time and re-sources. The presumption was that layout was done by humans using computers, and that much of the work was done manually when it could be automated by computers.

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2.3.3 Quality of ResearchFour tests were used to establish the quality of the case study: construct validity, internal validity, external validity and reliability (Yin, 2003: 34). These tests were also applied throughout the subsequent conduct of the case study and not just at the beginning.

Construct ValidityConstruct validity is about establishing correct operational measures for the concepts being studied.

To satisfy construct validity, two steps had to be covered:

1. Select specific types of changes that are to be studied, relating them to the original objectives of the study, and

2. Demonstrate that the selected measures of these changes do indeed reflect the specific types of change that have been selected.

Construct validity was realized as:

1. The case study was about studying the actual production of catalogues, with focus on the layout process, in relation to time and resources. The result would be a story of the production. This would serve the original objective of the study by answering how the production was done in reality.

2. If the case study was done at a company producing product catalogues, the re-sult would be a descriptive story of the whole process of making a catalogue. This story would tell if the production was done manually or automatically.

Three tactics were available to increase construct validity when doing the case studies: use multiple sources of evidence, establish a chain of evidence, and have the draft case study report reviewed by key informants. Using multiple sources of evidence and establishing a chain of evidence were used during data collection. Having key inform-ants review the draft case study report were used during composition.

Internal ValidityInternal validity is about establishing a causal relationship. It is only a concern for causal case studies. It is not applied to exploratory studies, which are not concerned with making causal claims (Yin, 2003: 36).

External ValidityExternal validity is about establishing the domain to which a study’s findings can be generalized.

Case studies rely on analytical generalization. The theory, that much manual work was done which could be automated by computers, was tested by replicating findings in a second and a third company. Once direct replications had been made, the result could be accepted as providing strong support for the theory (Yin, 2003: 37).

ReliabilityReliability is about demonstrating that the operations of a study can be repeated, with the same result. The objective of reliability is to be sure that if a later investigator fol-lowed the same procedures as described by an earlier investigator and conducted the same case study all over again, the later investigator should arrive at the same findings

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and conclusions. Two tactics for increasing the reliability of this case study was to use a case study protocol and to develop a case study database during data collection.

Multiple-Case DesignThe reason for doing multiple case studies was simply to pursue similar results, to provide support for the initial set of propositions. Each case had been selected so that it predicted similar results, a literal replication. Doing more than one case study would expand the external generalizability of the findings; otherwise an extremely strong argument would be needed in justifying the choice of the case.

When performing a replication procedure it was important to develop a rich theoretical framework. The framework needed to state the conditions under which the theory was valid as well as the conditions when it was not valid. The theoretical framework became the mean for generalizing to new cases (Yin, 2003: 47-48).

Each individual case study consisted of a study in itself, in which convergent evidence was sought. Each case’s conclusions were considered to be the information needing replication by other individual cases.

Redesign took place when a case did not work as predicted.

2.3.4 The Case Study ProtocolA case study protocol was an effective way of dealing with the overall problem of increasing the reliability of case studies. It included an overview of the project, field procedures, case study questions and a guide for the case study report. The case study protocol was for the data collection from a single case, and not intended to serve the entire project.

Case study investigators are prone to biased reporting because they must under-stand the issues beforehand. To test ones tolerance for contrary findings, preliminary findings were reported to critical colleagues. They offered alternative explanations and suggestions for data collection. If the search for contrary findings can produce a proof of the same, the likelihood of bias will have been reduced.

Training for the case studies was done by studying the earlier case study by Amaratunga and Baldry (2001).

Protocol development and review was done in co-operation with supervisors and group colleagues. Discussions with them addressed improvements of the protocol.

The first case study served as a pilot case study. It helped in developing relevant lines of questions and provided some conceptual clarification for the research design. The pilot data provided insight into the basic issues being studied. The earlier work by the author (Grahn, 2005) also indicated that this project would reflect issues relevant to contemporary cases.

An introduction letter was used to contact the company producing catalogues for Tokyo Business Association of University Co-Operatives (Coop) [Appendix F: Introduction Letter].

Case Study QuestionsThe most important part of the protocol was a set of substantive questions reflecting the actual line of inquiry. The people directly involved in producing the catalogues were the sources for these questions.

The case study questions were organized in a table shell, and were reviewed by

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supervisors and work colleagues before being used in the pilot case study. Each ap-pendix includes the actual questions being used for each case.

When articulating questions, it was important to distinguish between the verbal line of inquiry and the mental line of inquiry. The questions in the protocol were posed to the investigator, not to an interviewee. They were reminders regarding the information that needed to be collected and why. The actual questions posed to interviewees were not necessarily synonymous with the questions of inquiry.

The case study reports had to be detailed enough and relevant enough to make it possible for other catalogue producers to relate their own production to what was discussed in the case studies. Therefore, the following data were intended to make it possible for other readers of this report, such as catalogue producers, to relate their own production to what was studied:

• Name and address of the case study company• Number of employees• Number of employees working with catalogue production• Number of catalogues produced• Types of catalogues produced

Guide for the Case Study ReportThe basic outline for the case study report was the traditional, linear sequence: the posing of the research questions and hypothesis; a description of the research design; data collection procedures; the presentation of the data collected; the analysis of the data; and a discussion of findings and conclusions.

The audience is academics and engineers in printing technology.The documentary evidence from the case study data collection is found in the

appendices.

Field ProceduresA description of how access was granted to key organizations is found in Appendix G: Field Procedures.

While in the field the resources needed were basically just paper, pen, writing pad, and catalogue samples to illustrate which type of catalogues were studied.

2.3.5 Sources of EvidenceInterviews and direct observations were the two main methods to collect evidence. There was no prior knowledge of the organization or the people being interviewed. This was seen as an advantage, as the case studies were not subject to interpersonal relationships between the investigator and the interviewees.

Documents from companies were studied in case they were in English and to best possible degree when they were in Japanese.

Interviews were open-ended and were conducted in connection with the direct observations.

Field visits were made to the case study sites, which created the opportunity for direct observations. Observational protocols were developed as part of the case study protocol. Observations of the actual work added new dimensions for understanding the context being studied, and laid the foundation for the coming survey.

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Direct observations as method can be criticized for being subjective. For example, if three or four people are standing by a window, overlooking a busy street, observing what is happening during 5 minutes, and then writing down what they have seen, their interpretations will most probably differ. Each one has its own focus and interprets important events in its own way (Dixon, Bouma and Atkinson, 1987: 102; Bell, 2000: 138). This is also a problem in content analysis. Will several people agree that question X dealt with a topic related to catalogue production? The next section discusses how to address these problems.

Establishing Validity and Reliability of EvidenceYin (2003: 97-106) presents three principles which, when used properly, can help to deal with the overall problem of establishing construct validity and reliability of the case study evidence.

The first principle is to use multiple sources of evidence. Using multiple sources of evidence develops a converging line of inquiry, a process of triangulation. Data triangulation is about collecting information from multiple sources but aimed at supporting the same fact or phenomenon. The prerequisite is that the investigator has to master each used data collection technique.

The second principle is to create a case study database. The main point here is that the investigator should separate data from the report of the data. A case study inves-tigator should strive to develop a formal, presentable database, so that in principle, other investigators can review the evidence directly and not be limited to the written case study report. In this manner, a case study database will markedly increase the reliability of the case study. The database can consist of case study notes, case study documents, tabular materials and narratives. In this project, the database consists of the appendices found in the end of this thesis.

The third principle is to maintain a chain of evidence. The correct use of such a principle will increase the reliability of the information in a case study. The principle is to allow the reader of the case study to follow the derivation of any evidence, ranging from initial research questions to ultimate case study conclusions, in either direction. Furthermore, if the data presented is the same as the data collected, and all data is received attention, a case study also will have addressed the methodological problem of determining construct validity.

Linking results to the literature will also enhance the generalisability of case study research. This linkage is particularly crucial in theory building research because the findings often rest on a limited number of cases (Amaratunga and Baldry, 2001: 103).

2.4 Critical IncidentsOne way to investigate what people are doing during their work is to invite them to tell about important or critical incidents during a certain time period. The advantage of this method is that it does not demand too much time of the people as when filling in a diary with maybe trivial facts. It also emphasizes what people themselves think is problematic (Bell, 2000: 133-135).

Even if the activity is relatively simple, it may be needed to collect hundreds of critical incidents to make up a fair statement of requirements (Flanagan, 1954).

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The critical incident technique focuses on what people themselves think is problematic. This was seen as an advantage for this project, since there was little time for each visit. The idea was to identify the most critical work duties for an employee working with catalogue production. The results would not necessarily have to do with automated catalogue production, but would indicate what the employees themselves regard is problematic during production.

The critical incident technique uses interviews as data collection method.

2.4.1 General Aims of the ActivityThe general aim of the activity needs to be established in the beginning of the inter-view. It should be a brief statement obtained from the authorities in the field which expresses in simple terms those objectives to which most people would agree.

The general aim was to understand the production of catalogue layout. The outline to establish this general aim during the interview was as follows (adapted from Flanagan, 1954):

1. Make an introductory statement: I am making a study of catalogue layout and how it can be automated. I believe you are especially well qualified to tell me about making layout of catalogues.

2. Ask for general aim: What would you say is the primary purpose of doing layout of catalogues?

3. Ask for summary: In a few words, how would you summarize the general aim of doing layout of catalogues?

2.4.2 Collecting the DataThe critical incident technique is used to collect data on observations made which are reported from memory. This is usually satisfactory when the incidents reported are fairly recent.

After defining the general aims of the activity, the following statement was made:

“The interview is held for my Master of Science Project. I am trying to learn in detail about prob-lems when making layout of catalogues, and what part of the production can be made automatic. If production is to be more efficient, we need to identify the problems that are critical or not critical. Workers such as you are in the best position to report about production. I will do my best not to harm you in any way by the report. You will be anonymous in the report.”

The questions were as follows:

1. What is your job position?2. What is your highest education?3. How long have you been on this job?4. How old are you?5. What is the most difficult task or situation in layout production you have been

confronted with during the last two or three days?6. When in the process did this incident happen?7. What were the general circumstances leading up to this incident?8. How did you react to this incident?

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9. What kind of work do you want to be made automatic?10. What kind of work do you want to do yourself?

This critical incidents protocol was tried on and reviewed by a friend on 15 Decem-ber 2005.

2.5 SurveyIn a survey the same questions are asked to the respondents under as equal conditions as possible. The purpose is to receive answers from many people on the same ques-tions. In this way the researcher can not only describe but also compare answers (Bell, 2000: 19).

The survey in this project gave some quantitative support to the findings from the qualitative case studies. To be specific, it contained questions about time for producing catalogues, including general questions about automation.

The questionnaire aims were to:

• develop an understanding of the composition of catalogue producers world-wide,

• understand how catalogue production is done in relation to time,• understand the producer’s view of automation of catalogue layout.

Researchers who have implemented the email survey on a global scale have dem-onstrated that English-language email surveys can easily overcome national barriers (Swoboda et al., 1997 in Yun and Trumbo, 2000).

2.5.1 Email SurveysTse (1998 in Yun and Trumbo, 2000) summarized six advantages of using email surveys compared to traditional mail methods:

1. Email is cheaper2. It eliminates tedious mail processes3. It is faster in transmission4. It is less likely to be ignored as junk mail5. It encourages respondents to reply6. It can be constructed as environmentally friendly

Another advantage is that the text from the email questionnaire is already in digital form. This eliminates the need to transcribe handwritten mail questionnaires to digital form. The transcriptions can take much time and introduce errors if the handwriting is difficult to read.

Sampling procedures are improved in that email software can detect undeliverable emails as well as inform about exact dates when the survey was sent and received.

Response RatesThe response rate is one great concern about the email survey, as well as for all other modes of surveys. Studies that have used both mail and email for surveys have had

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varied results in response rates. Some email surveys did better than mail surveys, some did worse, and some were statistically equal (Sheehan, 2001). This is likely to many design differences (Couper, Blair and Triplett, 1999: 40-41). These variations suggest caution in generalizing from the findings of any study until more studies have been done.

At the same time, Bickart and Schmittlein (1999 in Sheehan, 2001) have reported that response rates are declining for all types and manner of surveys, at least in the United States. Groves, Cialdini and Couper (1992 in Sheehan, 2001) report that the US population is being oversurveyed.

From the study of Claycomb, Porter and Martin (2000 in Sheehan, 2001) no differences in response rates were seen in different reminder interval times. At the same time, sending too many email messages will bother some people. Sending spontaneous emails should be avoided.

Sheehan (2001) did a review of response rates for 31 email surveys carried out from 1986 to 2000, and found that the number of questions, pre-notification, follow up and salience had had weak influence on response rates.

Quality of ResponsesQuality of responses for email surveys are concerned with to which degree the respondents return complete answers.

Yun and Trumbo (2000) analysed the characteristics of three survey response modes: post, email and Web site. Although there is no description of the design of each mode, they observed few differences in terms of the quality of the responses. While the survey did not ask for any open-ended responses, it was the email respond-ents who provided some nonetheless. One of their conclusions is that the electronic-only survey is advisable when resources are limited and the target population suits an electronic survey.

The study by Couper, Blair and Triplett (1999) resulted in low overall rate of missing data for an identical mail and email survey. Their comparison of studies com-paring mail and email surveys carried out between 1986 and 1998, however, showed that the earlier studies had mixed results in terms of missing data.

There is also an indication that people tend to provide longer open-ended re-sponses to email than to other types of surveys (Yun and Trumbo, 2000; Couper, Blair and Triplett, 1999: 42, 2001; Schaefer and Dillman, 1998: 389). Responses to email surveys tend to be more candid than responses to mail or phone surveys (Bachmann, Elfrink and Vazzana, 1999 in Sheehan, 2001). Studies who have analysed the quality of response for email surveys have, for the most part, found that it produced a high response quality (Dommeyer and Moriarty, 1999).

2.5.2 Ways of Conducting Email SurveysEmail surveys can be conducted as embedded surveys, as a document attachment, as a program attachment, or in combination with a web site. This section describes and analyzes each of these methods.

Embedded Email SurveyThe simplest method is to embed the questions in an email that is sent to the respond-ent. The respondent simply scrolls through the message responding to questions, and

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returns the message to sender when completed. This approach is largely system-in-dependent, simple to design and answer, and closely resembles to the traditional mail survey (Couper, Blair and Triplett, 1999: 44). Given these benefits, it is important not to over-look the drawbacks.

The styling and the layout of the email questionnaire should be restricted to plain text to avoid problems of reading. Testing the email questionnaire format is necessary to ensure that the questions remain properly aligned after transmission and to control that the respondent’s answers do not negatively affect the structure of the question-naire (Dommeyer and Moriarty, 1999).

Most email programs can save a draft of the email survey in case the respondent wants to continue answering it later.

The investigator has to rely on email addresses combined with the answers in the questionnaire, to the degree allowed by the formulated ethical considerations, to match returns back to the sample frame.

The investigator has to be aware of that email is personal, not anonymous, and consequently has to deal with this matter in an elegant way to assure the respondent of anonymity.

Document AttachmentAnother way is to send the questionnaire as an attachment in an email. The respond-ent is asked to download the attachment, answer the questions, and send back the answered attachment in the original email.

Dommeyer and Moriarty (1999) did an experiment of doing an email survey in two forms: embedded vs. attached. The questionnaires were identical except for the formatting. The embedded survey used flat text. The attached survey was designed to look as professional as possible. A perception study of the two surveys also revealed that the attached questionnaire was rated as better looking, easier to fill out, clearer looking, and better organised than the embedded survey. Still, the embedded survey produced a response rate of 37 per cent, compared to 8 per cent for the attached email survey. There was no difference between the two methods on response speed, number of item omissions, or response bias. Dommeyer and Moriarty found the answer to this great difference in response rate simple: the attached email survey presents too many obstacles to the potential respondent in terms of downloading, reading and uploading a foreign file, and fear of computer viruses. Furthermore, it assumes that the respondent has the program for reading the attached document. This should be compared with the simplicity of just replying to a plain email.

Program AttachmentA third way is to send an email with an attachment in the form of a survey program, which is downloaded and executed by the respondent on his/her computer. The pro-gram can be nearly as creative as the investigator wants to, using graphics and sound. It can do checks for completeness, range and consistency. On the other hand, it needs programming skills, can be costly, and needs all users to have compatible platforms. It also needs all users to be able to download, install and run the program. The size of the program may create a large volume of outgoing and incoming Internet traffic. Some servers may have size limitations on incoming mail (Couper, Blair and Triplett, 1999: 44-45; Dommeyer and Moriarty, 1999). There may be a need for software support to resolve troubles using the program.

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Web SiteA fourth way is to use email to invite respondents to a secure Internet or Web site where they complete the survey. The Web site allows for use of graphics and sound. It can do checks for completeness, range and consistency. It can provide ongoing sum-maries of collected data. The survey can be constructed by tools and services available for free on the Internet. A drawback is browser incompatibility when reading scripts or code. This mode also needs that the respondent has access to the Internet when responding to the survey.

Another strategy is to use a mixed mode – using email when possible and other methods when not possible. Since email is cheaper and faster in transmission it is ideal for a first mode of contact in surveys. Researchers can begin with an email approach and use progressively more expensive methods for nonrespondents until an acceptable response level is reached (Schaefer and Dillman, 1998: 381). Another variant of this strategy is to offer several response modes which the respondent can choose from. This can improve response rates if the respondent should have a mode preference.

2.5.3 Validity of Postal SurveysThe validity of postal questionnaires is concerned with whether respondents who complete questionnaires do so accurately and, whether those who fail to return their questionnaires would have given the same distribution of answers as did the returnees (Cohen, 2000: 263-265). The problem of non-response can, in part, be controlled for by a follow-up contact with non-respondents, and then comparing their answers with the answers from the returnees.

Validity were increased by being careful in constructing the questionnaire, and asking friends and teachers to comment on the questionnaire. It was also important to pre-test the questionnaire before actually using it in large scale (Dixon, Bouma and Atkinson, 1987: 101-102).

2.5.4 Selecting RespondentsIn every survey it is important to make a representative selection of the population. Since the aim was to target the survey for catalogue producers worldwide, there was a need for information on the international representation of catalogue producers. It is not known if there is any such information available. The selection was random, trying to get as many catalogue producers as possible from as many parts of the world as possible to participate. Selection was done first by sending emails to friends, col-leagues and organizations in the printing industry, then by calling and sending emails directly to the producers. Since this project had to be carried out in less than half a year, it had to satisfy with questioning producers from the whole world that could be reached and were willing to participate.

The survey, corresponding to a pilot test and a revised questionnaire, was sent to 59 respondents in Argentina, Australia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, India, Spain, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and USA. When possible, the survey was sent to a personal email address. When that was not possible, it was sent to the info, sales, or contact address of the company. For 8 of the respondents, the pre-notifica-

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tion was done by a telephone call. Due to the time difference, however, and the fact that not every respondent could speak English, the pre-notification was done by sending an email to most of the respondents.

A telephone call was made to some of the respondents before asking to fill the questionnaire, because it was believed an initial personal contact would increase the co-operation and the number of answers. Kaplowitz, Hadlock and Levine (2004) found that a Web survey application, sent by email, achieved a comparable response to a mail hard copy questionnaire when both were preceded by an advance mail notifica-tion. This gave some support to the idea that an advance personal contact can have a positive effect on response rates, be it a mail survey or email survey. Sivadas and Mehta (1995 in Dommeyer and Moriarty, 1999) also believe it would be wise to seek the permission of survey respondents before emailing them a questionnaire. Schaefer and Dillman (1998: 380) recommend multiple contacts to be made to increase the response rates. They also believe personalization can increase response rates. To let individuals know that they are individually important, it seems important that email messages be sent directly to individual respondents, not part of a mailing list.

The selection had to be restricted to English speaking producers with access to email. Email sampling is necessary limited to email users, but that was not a problem since most catalogue producers already have access to email.

2.5.5 Format of the SurveyA cover letter accompanied the questionnaire, informing about the purpose of the research, and how the result would be used. It promised anonymity for the respond-ents and confidential treatment of answers. It included a specific final date when the questionnaire should have been answered and sent back. This date was repeated twice, first in the cover letter and second in the end of the questionnaire. Two weeks can be a reasonable time to answer a mail survey (Dixon, Bouma and Atkinson, 1987: 163; Bell, 2000: 114). For an email survey, one week was decided to be enough.

The ordering of the questionnaire was important. One covert purpose of each question was to ensure that the respondent would continue to co-operate. The following common sequence of a questionnaire (Cohen, 2000: 257) was tried to be imitated:

1. to begin with unthreatening factual questions, which should be simple and encourage participation;

2. to move to closed questions;3. to move to more open-ended questions, which should be of high interest in

order to encourage respondents to return the completed schedule.

It was important for respondents to be introduced to the purpose of each section of the questionnaire, so that they could become involved in it and maybe identify with it.

Clear instructions and clarity of wording was important, since everything hinged on respondents knowing exactly what to do.

Sectionalizing of the questions was a useful technique for making the question-naire look smaller than it actually was.

A brief note at the very end of the questionnaire asked respondents to check that no answer had been accidentally missed out, solicited an early return of the answered

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questionnaire, and thanked the respondents for their participation and co-operation (Cohen, 2000: 259).

The survey was divided into three sections. The first section contained questions about the respondent’s company. The purpose was to create an aggregated overview of the composition of catalogue producers, and also to check if the respondent actually belonged to the target group of the survey. The second section contained questions about automated catalogue production. The purpose was to check if cata-logue producers in general would give the same answers to the questions as the case study respondents. The aim was to receive a sufficient amount of responses to be able to generalize the findings from the qualitative case studies. The third and last section contained questions specific to the respondent’s catalogue production. The purpose was to answer the central question of what part of the production takes most time to carry out.

A promise was given that upon receipt of the survey, names would be deleted, an anonymous copy would be saved and the email would be deleted.

2.5.6 Pilot TestA general guideline is to try the survey on at least 5 respondents before final design (Bell, 2000: 117). The pilot questionnaire in this project was sent to 28 respondents [Table H.1, page H–6].The respondents were drawn from the possible sample but who would not receive the final, refined version (Cohen, 2000: 261). For 8 respondents, the pre-notification was made by a telephone call. For the rest of the respondents, the pre-notification was made by an email.

The cover letter and the instruction page were also reviewed before being used, as it could affect the will to answer the questions.

A pilot test had the main function of increasing the reliability, validity and practicability of the questionnaire (Cohen, 2000: 260). In addition to the actual questionnaire [Appendix H: Survey], the following questions were added at the end of the questionnaire (Bell, 2000: 113):

1. How long time did it take to answer the questionnaire?2. Are the instructions clear and easy to understand?3. Are there any questions that are difficult to understand or are ambiguous? If

yes, which questions and what is the reason?4. Is there any question you do not want to answer?5. Is there according to you any important question missing?6. How do you find the layout of the survey?7. Other comments and suggestions.

Answers from the pilot questionnaire helped to identify possible problems of coding and analysis. Answers from the additional questions helped to improve the design of the questionnaire.

2.5.7 Conducting the SurveyThe format of the survey was decided to be an embedded email survey, mainly because of its low cost, fast transmission, and that it was simple to create and respond

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to.The procedure for the questionnaire, phase 5 of the research strategy, was to:

1. Email friends, colleagues and organizations in the printing industry to get contacts to catalogue producers in their home country. Search on the Internet for catalogue producers.

2. Call or email the producers. Explain about the research, and ask if they want to participate in the survey.

3. Send a pilot survey to at least five producers by email.4. Revise the survey from the responses.5. Send a revised survey. Note when the survey was sent.6. Send a reminder after 1 week with a replacement questionnaire. Write down

date.7. Note when the questionnaire was received.

All emails were sent from the author’s email address at KTH ([email protected]). The revised survey was sent to 31 respondents. The pre-notification was done by email for these respondents.

A literal reproduction of the pre-notification, the cover letter and the revised questionnaire is found in Appendix H: Survey. The format of the email survey was partly adapted from Schaefer and Dillman (1998: 385).

Before using the pre-notification, the cover letter and the questionnaire, they were all reviewed by two teachers and one friend. Respondents had 1 week to answer the email questionnaire.

A reminder was sent to non-respondents after 1 week. Another slightly revised questionnaire was sent, plus a new cover letter with a slightly more urgent and fo-cused tone. The respondents were reminded of the questionnaire previously sent, and of the purpose. The letter suggested that because they were so busy they might have forgotten about the questionnaire. They were told of the need for each questionnaire. The format of the reminder was partly adapted from Linsky and Spendlove (1967).

Spread sheets were used to keep track of all respondents on dates for sending and receiving the notification, the questionnaire and reminders [Appendix H: Survey].

2.6 Ethical ConsiderationsAs this research was focused on meeting people, ethical issues had to be considered. Discussions about ethical issues in interviews and questionnaires can be found in Dixon, Bouma and Atkinson (1987: 164-166), Bell (2000: 40-44), and Cohen (2000: 245-246; 2000: 292).

These were the conditions and guarantees when performing the research:

1. Every participant had the option of remaining anonymous in the report.2. All information was treated with confidentiality. The researcher was the only

one who knew the origin of the findings.3. Interviewed people and organizations had the opportunity to review the

printout of the interview before the result was published. In this way each individual and organization could affect its traceability.

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4. Every participant had the right to withdraw at any stage of the research.5. Every participant will have a copy of the final report, at least a digital one.6. Data from the survey were aggregated. This aggregation would make the

respondents non-traceable.7. The principal aim of the report was to make up a thesis within the scope of

the education. If a future publishing will be in question participants will have the ability to approve this, to the extent their views and statements are cited.

8. The purpose of this project was to study how catalogue production could be automated to a higher degree. Hopefully, the results will be of use to the participants.

When research was performed with people, such as doing case studies, it was important to:

• inform about the purpose of the research in advance of the study,• inform about the intended use of information, and• receive agreed consent from participants.

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Chapter 3

Literature Review: Page Layout and its Automation

This chapter was the first step of the research strategy: a literature review to understand the research objectives. Any literature on catalogue production automation was not found, but on automated layout techniques. Documents can be separated into either content-driven or layout-driven, with their own solutions for automation. A common technique for doing automated layout is to use constraint satisfaction. The XML standard supports content-driven documents.

3.1 IntroductionThis project defined page layout as a spatial arrangement of objects on a two-dimen-sional surface. Automated layout implied that this arrangement of objects was done automatically, using computers – without manual intervention.

A presentation’s layout can have a significant impact on how well it communicates information to and obtains information from those who interact with it. Characteris-tics of the media type are also important, such as selection of paper and printing ink in a substrate-based edition.

Layout is one component of a presentation’s design, and must complement other decisions that determine the number and nature of the visual objects that are laid out: the information to be communicated and its format (Lok and Feiner, 2001). Content selection has to be done such that it fits onto a fixed-size page, while maximizing the value of the content. The selection could be based on scoring each item for how marketable it is. After having selected the items, they must be laid out on the page, with the additional constraints of ordering and grouping them in a meaningful way, and making the result aesthetically pleasing.

Looking at layout as a theoretical concept, placement of text blocks and pictures on the page and typography together with linguistic resources provide meta-informa-

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tion about the text, which fit together to a structural overview. This conceptual over-view has three main functions. It allows for communication of non-linear discourse, it serves as an access tool for its non-linear, selective consumption, and it creates expectations on the document content on the part of the reader. In this sense, page layout mainly communicates meta-information. This meta-information can be: the text has such and such sections, they have such and such lengths, and they should be read in this order. In page layout, text and its typography carry the message. Graphical elements are only used to support or ornament the information (Reichenberger et al., 1995).

Many layouts created today are done manually by a human graphic designer. Visual communication is what graphic designers are paid to be good at. The problem is that the designer makes most, if not all, of the decisions about the position and size of the objects to be presented. There are cases, however, where a computer can automate parts of the production, or all of it, and still make the result pleasing. Examples of such a case is uniform product catalogues from gross vendors (Lok and Feiner, 2001; Purvis et al., 2003; Lok, Feiner and Ngai, 2004; Grahn, 2005: 144).

Some advantages of automatic publishing are:

• The production will increase by shortening lead times (Grahn, 2005: 144).• The production cost will decrease since more work can be done with fewer

working forces.• Organizations are holding an increased amount of data about individuals. Dig-

ital presses are capable of one-off printing at a quality rivalling offset machines. Thus there is a potential for automatic generation of personal documents (Goldenberg, 2002: 1). A bank, for example, can hold customer data such as name, income, age and address. This information can be used to produce individual documents offering attractive house loans for new families. Another example is online stores, who can produce individual recommendations from previously made transactions.

• Styling a large amount of text, and flowing content into templates, are examples of work that should be automated since this kind of work is highly repetitive, can easily fail, and is tiresome to carry out manually.

• Automation can be set on when leaving the work for the day, and let the computer do the work during the night.

Doing automatic layout of information would also be useful for web pages and e-paper. Information on the web is often presented as lengthy documents, as if the user wants to read the whole document on the screen, when the information should be presented with focus on the layout. The task of an automated layout system would be to transform the document from being focused on the content to being focused on the layout.

The term “automated layout” is also used in the fields of graph layout and circuit layout for chip fabrication. In graph layout many of the issues with which it is concerned are specific to the problems caused by the explicit visual representation of graph edges, such as minimizing edge crossing. In the case of circuits, these layouts are designed to meet the requirements of a fabrication process, such as minimizing chip area and interconnect length in very large scale integration (VLSI) circuits, instead of making them understandable to humans. They employ some techniques, however,

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that may contribute to automated layout of presentations, such as general constraint solvers (Lok and Feiner, 2001).

3.2 An Overview of Research in Automatic Layout TechniquesUsing templates is a simple and commonly used technique of automated layout. Mal-lverkstan (2005) is an example of a company whose business is all about using tem-plates to automate layout. Constrained satisfaction, learning and genetic algorithms are other techniques that have been explored in automated layout systems (Lok and Feiner, 2001; Geigel and Loui, 2003).

Software solutions for automated layout are most often template-based or use special scripting languages (for review, see Grahn, 2005: 146-147).

The Asian market may have interesting solutions, but the language barriers still make it largely unknown to the West. FounderFIT from Founder International (2002) is an example of an all-in-one automatic page-composition solution that had previ-ously been available only in Chinese and Japanese markets, but are now also marketed in the West (Parsons, 2002: 5).

Bateman et al. (2001) studied automatic layout of magazines and diagrams. They argue that decisions about layout of magazines are also found in the construction of an effective text. Diagrams and texts should mutually reinforce one another by applying common information groupings. In their paper they make an attempt at archiving consistency between layout and communicative intent by deriving layout structure from a rhetorically organized presentation plan. A catalogue does not need to be rhetorically organized, but it can help the reader to absorb the whole information.

Reichenberger et al. (1995: 3) illustrate with a good example that the layout can destroy the whole document if it does not take into account the relationship between the layout and the semantic of the content.

Goldenberg (2002) implemented a method of genetic algorithm (GA) based on very large scale integration (VLSI) design. The goal was to minimize white space and overall aspect ratio. The technique could not divide the layout into more than two groups without being successful. Goldenberg suggests (2002: 35) that grouping could be achieved by dividing the page beforehand into regions, and then applying the GA separately to the objects to be placed in each region. That may, however, still not maintain visually obvious relationships among objects.

There is some specific research on picture albuming. Event clustering of pictures is automatically done based on date and time information recorded at capture time, as well as image content information (Loui and Wood, 1999; Loui and Savakis, 2000). In the system of Geigel and Loui (2001, 2003) picture arrangement is done using a promising method of genetic algorithms.

In the attempt of using concepts from graphic design to create legible and pleasing layouts, some systems employ a grid to lay out information (Feiner, 1988; Jacobs et al., 2003).

There are many reasons for separating content from layout. One is the ability to do multi-channel publishing. More reasons are reuse of information, creating different

25

language versions, change of format, index creation and storage. As screen resolu-tions begin to approach the quality of print, Jacobs et al. (2003) argue that adapting grid-based design to arbitrarily-sized electronic displays is one of the sole remaining barriers to reading on-line. They use a set of grid-based templates that know how to adapt to a range of page sizes. These templates define, through constraint-based relationships, how elements are to be laid out together as a function of both content and viewing properties. Templates and content are separated by description in XML.

Templates are an intuitive way for designers to author layout styles. Templates give designers a type of direct and precise graphical control that is more difficult to attain using just rules and constraints (Jacobs et al., 2003).

Format style is, contrary to literary style, media dependent. The overall appear-ance of a document must be consistent with the company’s policy. Style choice in itself can convey information, such as which company created the document. Jones et al. (2004) takes this a step further by suggesting that decision should be made over intent and not to define style.

Systems that support reflowing of document content – for example Microsoft Word, Donald Knuth’s typesetting system LaTeX, and XSL-FO – treat the document content as a single one-dimensional flow, instead of supporting grid-based design.

The strength of WYSIWYG composition tools are in creating and perfecting indi-vidual static documents. The content and styling and layout are tightly bound within the document, so reflowing the document to an alternative medium is difficult.

Lok, Feiner and Ngai (2004) introduce an algorithm which is based on the concept of automatically evaluating visual balance without human intervention. Their approach is to implement the crystallographic visual balance measure of a presenta-tion, where the eye is not attracted to any particular part, but to the overall land-scape. An evaluation metric cannot generate a layout by itself, but it can be combined with other automated layout approaches or used in a generate-and-test manner.

Harrington et al. (2004) suggest a practical evaluation method for document lay-out aesthetics. Their approach is to collect and combine heuristic rules for document measurements that can harm the aesthetics. The combination is nonlinear so that one bad aesthetic feature can harm the overall score. Although they do not specify if the measurements are restricted to certain types of documents, the measurements should be applicable to catalogues.

Guidelines for good layout have to be drawn from many different areas, for example Gestalt psychology and conventional typography (Borchers, Deussen and Knörzer, 1995). These fields are complex enough to justify building a team of experts from each of these fields when creating professional automated layout systems.

Graphics appear to succeed in practice when they have been designed to directly support a specific task (Casner, 1991: 112). Effective graphic design should begin with the task that a graphic is intended to support.

3.3 Core ProblemProducing catalogues is of course not only about doing layout. The work includes at least planning, merchandising, creating and marketing. The creative part includes

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determining the components of the catalogue, developing a creative concept, doing layout and design, and photography. This project is restricted to the creative part of catalogue production, specifically the creation of layout of catalogues.

Given is a set of blocks of different form, where each block contains information about a product, and a bound area on a page where the blocks are to be placed. The layout problem is to spread the blocks automatically on the bound area according to certain preferences such as design aesthetics and relationships between the content and the design [Figure 3.1].

Reichenberger et al. (1995) define the main goal of the layout, in the case of magazines, to provide an overview over the document. This is mainly realised through three subgoals: grouping, type distinction and reading order.

Automation should ultimately reduce the time and the resources needed to perform a task. Since time and resources can be measured, it is possible to improve.

The layout problem has a multidimensional problem space. If the placement of an image is represented by four values, corresponding to the horizontal position, vertical position, rotation, and scaling of the image, and we consider, for example, a page with 10 images, the number of degrees of freedom for the set of possible solutions is 40 (Geigel and Loui, 2003).

The major problem to successful application of artificial intelligence techniques is not so much the representation of expert knowledge in the machine as in getting the expert knowledge from the human experts (Lieberman, 1995; Bateman, 2001: 416; Purvis et al., 2003: 75). Liebermans (1995) study of design education indicates that designers communicate knowledge graphically, not through text. Furthermore, in dynamic and personalized systems, design preferences might change over time, from designer to designer, and even from solution to solution (Purvis et al., 2003: 74).

To investigate what kind of documents could be automated, it helped to understand the separation of document production into either content-driven or layout-driven. Other ways to differentiate documents is by printing interval, number of languages and number of geographical zones.

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Grouping productdata into items

Placing items on the page

Figure 3.1 Illustration of the basic problem of producing catalogue layout. Product data are available in form of spread sheets, documents and databases. The problem is to decide how the product data should be grouped into items, and how the items should be placed on the page.

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3.4 Content-Driven Versus Layout-Driven DocumentsDocuments can be separated into either layout-driven or content-driven (Deach, 1998). Holman (2003: 51-52) writes about this separation as layout-based vs. con-tent-based formatting. The separation is important since each type of production has its own solutions for automation (for review, see Grahn, 2005: 146-148). This project was delimited to layout-driven catalogue production.

This separation has been used throughout the project since it is easy to understand and seems accepted by professionals.

Typical content-driven documents include product documentation, database-driven documents, conference proceedings, books and business documents [Figure 3.2].

Documents that are considered layout-driven include catalogues, advertising, maga-zines, presentations and forms [Figure 3.3].

Layout-driven documents, however, have content-driven components, and content-driven documents have layout-driven components.

Figure 3.2 Example of content-driven documents: conference proceeding and text book

144

Efficient production of uniform layout, K.-J. Grahn (Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden)

Companies often produce catalogues of their products, such as catalogues of computer peripheral, clothes, sport gear etc. Data is transferred to a layout program such as Adobe InDesign for design. The problem is that a lot of manual layout is done which as well could be done by computers. Customers assume that the information in the catalogue is the latest one. The catalogue is important for the marketing, and it is printed regularly. There-fore it is important to quickly be able to produce a catalogue with the latest information. The aim of this project was to find solutions for making the production of layout more efficient and automatic. The profit is an increase in the produc-tion of layout of uniform material by shorter lead times. Content that can be output to a page in a similar manner from product to product should get an automatic layout. There is little research on this topic. There are about a dozen companies, each small in size, working with making layout more efficient. The study is based on interviews with professionals at media companies in Sweden, Internet research, and evaluation of software. One conclusion is that few strive for a fully automatic production, and that it is difficult to accomplish this in a practical sense. Solutions are evaluated based on two scenarios and are put in relation with two principles of production. Companies can save tens of thousands of dol-lars through education or consultation and usage of the correct software.

Abstract

This project was part of an advanced course in Publishing Technology at KTH. The project was carried out at the request of Kapero AB, a consultan-cy firm in the printing industry. This paper is a short edition of the original report by Grahn (2005).Companies often produce catalogues of their products, such as catalogues of computer equipment, clothes, sport gear etc. Data is transferred to a layout program for design. The problem is that a lot of manual layout is done which as well could be done by computers.Customers assume that the information in the catalogue is the latest one. The catalogue is important for the marketing, and it is printed regularly. There-fore it is important to quickly be able to produce a catalogue with the latest information.The aim of this project was to find solutions for making the production of layout more efficient and automatic. The profit is an increase in the produc-tion of layout of uniform material by shorter lead times. Content that can be output to a page in a similar manner from product to product should get an automatic layout.There are not more than about a dozen companies, each small in size, wor-king with making layout more efficient. There seems to be little research on the topic.The study is based on interviews with professionals in the printing industry in Sweden, information research via Internet, and evaluation of software. It is a qualitative study where the interviews and questions mostly were made up of open-ended questions. It is a study of existing solutions and did not include any programming.

Outline

Efficient production of uniform layout, K.-J. Grahn

145digital printing, new media

There are basically two scenarios for production of catalogues and similar that both presupposes storage of information in a database, see figure 1.The focus in scenario 1 is on automatic layout of data. Transfer of data is in one way: from database to appropriate format for later design in a layout program.In scenario 2 there is a connection between the database and the document which makes it possible to change values of attributes in both document and database.In this project scenario 1 was the most important one with a simple data source such as a delimited text file.

Scenarios for production

According to Risdal (2005) there are two principles of production of cata-logues and similar: one who is driven by content, and one who is driven by design, see figure 2.

Figure 1: Two scenarios for production of catalogues

Figure 2: Two principles of production

Principles of production

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This project focused on production driven by design, and that is why a layout program was necessary for design and flexibility. Rönnbäck (2005) states that traditional graphic offices often have an inconsistent and incomplete data structure, so the work usually begins with deciding how a good structure should be attained in a cost-effective matter. Lindström (2005) states that product information often exist at several places, making it difficult to coordinate information gathering. According to Rönnbäck (2005) few strive for a fully automatic production. Time-consuming and uncertain operations such as formatting of text and mounting of pictures should be automatic, while more creative parts can be kept doing manually. Hillstad (2005) states that corrections of product information take much effort during production. A document often needs to be read through three times before it is correct.

Solutions There are many existing solutions for management of the entire production, from storage of data to use of data. Some of these systems are reviewed in Grahn (2005: 16-19). Solutions for InDesign include plug-ins, scripts, mark-up text and XML, which are further discussed in Grahn (2005: 20-22). Grahn (2005: 23-32) include a detailed review of software solutions for scenario 1 and scenario 2. Table 1 and table 2 are summaries of solutions for scenario 1 and scenario 2, respectively. Solutions were reviewed by studying handbooks and testing some of the software. Noteworthy solutions for scenario 1 are Catalog Extreme Suite, Data Merge, InData and EasyCatalogCS. Catalog Extreme Suite offers flexible layout but to a high price. Data Merge has a low price but static layout. InData has a low price and flexible layout, but requires a special scripting language to be of full use. EasyCatalog is more expensive than Indata but seemingly easier to use. The most interesting solution for scenario 2 is InCatalog, which has a low price, yet offer a two way communication between database and InDesign.

Conclusions Irrespectively of working with scenario 1 or scenario 2, the data should be organized. Collecting the data should be just as easy as doing the automatic layout. Before choosing a solution the enterprise has to decide which kind of layout is desired, as the two principles of production governs the choice of soluti-on. If production is driven by content an XML based system may be a good solution. If production is driven by design, the solution is decided by type of production and level of education. The solutions for scenario 1 usually require programming skills to be of full use. If layout is very uniform, a plug-in such as Data Merge may be a solution. More varying layout may need a more flexible and therefore

Efficient production of uniform layout, K.-J. Grahn

Figure 3.3 Example of layout-driven documents:a) Catalogueb) Poster

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3.4.1 Content-Driven DocumentsContent-driven documents have simple layout and quite regular styling, so a large number of documents can share a common design.

The goal of a content-driven styling process is to minimize the amount of human interaction with the layout process. All or part of the formatting is specified in rules and style sheets:

• Data reorganization is necessary because parts of the document, such as foot-notes, floating illustrations, table of content and index, are presented at places that are determined by the layout process or after the pagination is finished.

• Page design is highly rule based, with extensive control over pagination. Run-arounds are simple.

• There is an extensive use of auto-numbering

Content-based formatting respects the quantity and identity of the information. The constraints of layout are expressed as rules in a style sheet associated with the information dictating how given information is to be presented.

This focus on information places more emphasis on the content and rules of layout than on the medium. According to Holman (2003: 51), such layout is usually highly structured in both the authoring and the formatting processes.

3.4.2 Layout-Driven DocumentsLayout-driven documents are less consistent than content-driven ones. The specific page designs have significant variations from page to page and from issue to issue. Their production processes are often more complex, in part due to the complexity of their content. Characteristics of layout-driven documents are:

• Most are multi-thread: multiple articles, articles mixed with sidebars, photos, advertisements, articles jumping to non-adjacent pages.

• Pages have complex designs with few repetitions. Position or juxtaposition conveys information or emphasis. The relationship expressed by juxtaposition is often arrived at by inference, there is no explicit representation made in the content model.

• The content is often trimmed or rewritten to fit the allowed space• Layouts are template based or individually drawn. They have complex run-

arounds, freeform layouts, text on paths and multi-column.

Layout-based formatting respects the constraints of the target medium, which often demands absolute positioning, column location specification, or page number speci-fication. For example, it is important for a product catalogue that the available space is used as efficiently as possible, filling empty spaces with advertisements and product specifications.

This focus on layout places more emphasis on the appearance and location of information than on the information itself. According to Holman (2003: 51), such layout is typically unstructured in both the authoring and the formatting processes.

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3.4.3 Shared Requirements and ConclusionsDeach (1998) mentions four formatting requirements that are shared by both: paragraph styles, character styles, table and cell styles, and international styles. Those requirements, however, depend on the degree of uniformity. Some avant-garde layout-driven publications, for example, are having many different styles in the same document.

His conclusion is that in a content-driven document, the layout, content-mapping and styling are hierarchical. In a layout-driven document it is often necessary to separately describe the layout, the mapping of content to layout regions, and the styling of the content.

3.5 Constraint SatisfactionThe survey of automated layout techniques by Lok and Feiner (2001) indicates that much research in automated layout is based on constraint methods. Therefore, this technique is described in more detail. The idea is that the “semantics” of the design can be replaced by constraint relationships. A constraint is simply a statement of a relation that we would like to have hold. Constraints allow designers to specify what the wanted properties of the system are, rather than how these properties are to be maintained (Borning, Lin and Marriott, 2000) [Figure 3.4].

3.5.1 Types of ConstraintsIn a constraint-based automated layout system, most constraints can be classified as either abstract or spatial. An abstract constraint describes a high-level relationship between two components, while a spatial constraint enforces position or size restric-tions on the components. From Lok and Feiner (2001), however, it does not become

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PW

CW RGLG

PW = LG + CW + RGLG = RG = 0.005 [m]Figure.midx = LG + 0.5 * CWFigure.width CWPW 0.21 [m]TextFontSize = 8 [pt]TitleFontSize = 2 * TextFontSizeFigure is important

≤ ≤

Example set of constraintsfor the item:

Figure 3.4 Example page with example constraints. The constraints specify that the page has a colum width CW, with left and right gutters of width 5 mm, and that the column has to be wide enough to fit the figure in. The figure is centred on the column. The system might interpret the abstract constraint “Figure is important” as placing it on top of the page. The constraints should not be handwritten. Rather, they should be implicit in the templates and the tools provided by an authoring tool. (Adapted from Borning, Lin and Marriott, 2000)

30

clear if there is a strict definition separating the two types of constraints, although that was not the purpose of the paper.

Spatial constraints can alone create simple environments, while this is not true for abstract constraints.

Constraints are fed to a constraint solver for resolution. The output is an assign-ment of values to the variables such that all constraints are satisfied.

Borning, Lin and Marriott (2000) also present the concept of constraint style sheets, which can be used to specify alternate sets of constraints to be used under different circumstances.

Abstract ConstraintsAbstract constraints are descriptions of high-level relationships between components, such as “Caption1 describes Picture1” and “Title is important”. They are effective in interactive systems because the author of the content needs no additional technical or artistic skills to specify them.

Abstract constraints need to be mapped to spatial constraints before they are fed to a numeric constraint solver.

Spatial ConstraintsSpatial constraints are relations that directly express the geometric structure of the presentation, such as “Page_width = 0.21 [m]” and “Left_margin = 0.05 [m]”. They are important for improving the visual quality and aesthetics of the presentation. Spatial constraints place visual restrictions on where components of the layout are placed. Visual aspects such as balance are especially important in the layout (Lok, Feiner and Ngai, 2004).

The choice of data structure for representing the components is important since it can place restrictions on what kinds of spatial constraints may be used.

The efficiency of the constraint solver can be increased by placing spatial constraints on similar object, for example permitting them to be resized in only one direction.

3.5.2 Expressing ConstraintsOne way of expressing constraints is to define a formal grammar as done by Weitz-man and Wittenburg (1994). Another way is to express the constraints as Boolean predicates (Lok and Feiner, 2001).

3.5.3 Obtaining ConstraintsA crucial practical issue in implementing a constraint-based automated layout system is determining where to obtain the constraints. Some automated layout systems im-plement abstract constraints by gathering them from structured input data (Mackin-lay, 1986; Casner, 1991; Reichenberger et al., 1995). Lok and Feiner (2001) state that structured input data are becoming increasingly valid. A study of three catalogue producers (Armbrüster, 2006) in Germany reveals that they all use databases for their catalogue production. The saving effect of databases, however, will probably show up only with subsequent catalogues, when only minimal changes have to be done and current data can be brought in from the database (Armbrüster, 2006: 23).

31

Interactive specification is usually done for spatial constraints. Ideally the designer should not need to think of arithmetic constraints or even be aware of these. They should be implicit in various templates and tools provided by an authoring tool (Born-ing, Lin and Marriott, 2000).

3.5.4 Constraint SolversAutomated layout techniques all solve a form of the “constraint satisfaction problem” (Lok and Feiner, 2001). This problem consists of a set of variables, their associated domains of values, and a set of constraints. A solution consists in finding an assign-ment of values to the variables such that all constraints are satisfied [Figure 3.5].

The goal in providing constraints is to allow users to state what relations they want to hold in a declarative fashion, for example using an authoring tool with a graphical user interface, leaving it to the system to realize these relations. Then systems will most probably have to deal with contradicting constraints that may make the system of constraints unsolvable. In these cases a resolution policy is needed. Some systems are constructed in such a way that inconsistencies can never occur (Weitzman and Wittenburg, 1994). Another approach is to assign priorities to the constraints, and let the system make intelligent decisions about which constraints to drop if a contradic-tion should occur (Purvis et al., 2003).

3.6 XML TechniquesThe strength of using XML and related techniques is a high potential for exchange of structured documents or data. XSL provides rules for a standardized formatting workflow from XML to PDF documents. Conceptual and technical separation of transformation and formatting supports a correspondingly modularized production flow. The division of responsibilities offers a potential for a new, efficient workflow (Kreulich, 2003). As was seen from the review of layout-based production, this modularization is almost necessary for efficient production of layout-based products.

The Extensible Stylesheet Language-Formatting Objects, XSL-FO, is a powerful vocabulary for producing high quality printable output as a collection of fixed-sized pages. It is not intended to be hand-written; instead XSLT is used to transform an XML instance into an instance of the XSL-FO vocabulary. An XSL-FO formatting tool interprets the instance of XSL-FO to render page images [Figure 3.6].

PW = LG + CW + RGLG = RG = 0.005 [m]Figure.midx = LG + 0.5 * CWFigure.width CWPW 0.21 [m]TextFontSize = 8 [pt]TitleFontSize = 2 * TextFontSizeFigure is important

≤ ≤

Constraint Solver

One possible assignmentof values:

PW = 0.21 [m]CW = 0.20 [m]LG = RG = 0.005 [m]Figure.midx = 0.105 [m]Figure.width = 0.20 [m]TextFontSize = 8 [pt]TitleFontSize = 16 [pt]

Figure 3.5 Solving a simple constraint satisfaction problem. The constraints from Figure 3.4 are fed to a constraint solver. The output is an assignment of values to the variables. Note that the variables PW, CW, Figure.midx, and Figure.width can take on more values, depending on the constraint solver.

32

So, XSL-FO is basically an advanced pagination mark-up language. XSL-FO is just another vocabulary that can be expressed as an XML instance, requiring an applica-tion to interpret the formatting intent in order to affect the result. This is just like the use of the HTML vocabulary for a web browser.

The initial release of XSL has support for content-driven formatting, postponing layout-driven formatting. DSSSL and CSS also address content-driven documents. A future direction of the XSL Working Group is to include layout-driven documents in the next release (Deach, 2002: 6). The XSL-FO standard 1.0, however, does already have certain controls for the positioning, cropping and flowing of information to particular areas of pages in page sequences (Holman, 2003: 51-52).

XSL-FO is not intended to replace interactive WYSIWYG composition tools such as Adobe InDesign or Quark XPress. There are two situations that are best handled by such software: when a designer needs creative control of the layout, and when a writer or illustrator needs to work on the content while simultaneously viewing or modifying its layout.

XSL-FO is useful for producing documents such as financial-planning guides, owner and maintenance manuals, legal agreements and contracts (Deach, 2002). Kreulich (2003) extends this by adding structured printed matter, database publish-ing, cross-media publishing, web printing, adaptive documents and exchange of functional charts.

XSL is a standard and thus supports flexibility in integration with other systems.Deach stated 2002 that XSL-FO was in its “early-adopter” phase. Interactive

tools, however, for creating XSL stylesheets are now available. For example, jCatalog Software AG has developed XSLfast to create stylesheets with an intuitive graphical user interface (jCatalog Software AG, 2005). Two more examples are Stylus Studio 2006 XML Enterprise Edition (Progress Software Corporation, 2005), a comprehen-sive set of XML tools and features for working with XML techniques, and Scriptura (Inventive Designers NV, 2006), a solution for creating stylesheets with a graphical user interface.

XML

XSLT

XSL-FO

Data flow

Database

PDF

Processor

Formatter

Fonts andimages

abcfgh

Figure 3.6 The data flow for XSL-FO. The original data are found in a database, which are trans-formed to a semantic XML format. An XSL stylesheet transforms the XML instance into an instance of the XSL-FO vocabulary. Fonts and images are brought to a formatter, together with the XSL-FO document, to produce output such as print, screen or PDF. (Adapted from Deach, 2002)

33

3.7 Refined Problem StatementAs can be seen from this literature review, the research of automated layout is much focused on the technique itself. The proposition was that there are other factors that are equally important in making the process more automatic or not.

The research up to 2006 has also been quite theoretical. This project aimed at studying the problem in its real context. The aim was also to give recommendations of practical value.

The central question to investigate was to which degree traditionally hand-made layout-based catalogue production could be automated. The problem was to investi-gate which work should be automated and which work should be done manually in this process.

34

Chapter 4

Results: Catalogue Production Automation

This chapter is a description of how catalogue production is done. It is also a compilation of the results from the empirical study. The results are available in complete form in the appendices.

4.1 Catalogue CreationA common conception of a catalogue is the direct mail catalogue, since people receive those regularly through the mail box. But catalogues are also an irreplaceable medium for field representatives during customer discussion, and for wholesale dealers to supply their clients with the correct products (Armbrüster, 2006: 20).

The overall process of creating a catalogue is a circular process which involves merchandising, positioning, proposition, creative execution, new customer acquisi-tion, customer list communication, fulfilment, database and post analysis (Schmid, 2000: 8-14) [Figure 4.1]. Within each of these areas lies a subsystem of functions. For example, according to Schmid (2000: 73), the creative process consists of four parts: creating the creative concept, executing the creative concept, producing the pages, colour separation and film.

The focus in this project was on companies producing catalogues as an assignment for someone else, sometimes referred to as creative agencies. The company can also do the creative work itself, for itself, such as Toppan Editorial [Appendix C], which is commonly called in-house production.

4.1.1 Selecting Catalogue ProductsCreating successful catalogues is much about selecting successful catalogue products (Schmid, 2000). The layout and the products are interwoven: the layout consists

35

of the products, and the products make up the layout. If the layout is automated, a closely related problem is to automate the selection of the products. The selection of a product should be done to maximize the relationship between the sales of the product and its position on the page, its size, its colour, its use of mark-ups, and the connection between the picture and its accompanying text. Schmid (2000: 31-33) presents an analytic tool called “square-inch” analysis which looks at every product’s performance against other products and the amount of space used for each item on the page. It is a post analysis tool to better understand what the customers are buying. Understanding the profit contribution of each item can help the merchandising and creative staff where and how to adjust future product offerings, allocate space and paginate catalogues.

4.1.2 Catalogue LayoutA catalogue is in most cases a visual, layout-driven, medium. That is why the design matters so much. Concepts such as eye flow, colour, illustrations and graphs, typog-raphy, white space and layout all have to be taken into account when creating a design (Schmid, 2000: 86-90), and consequently have to be part of an automated layout system.

Catalogues and photo albums resemble scrapbooks in the way pictures are

AudienceMerchandise

(Product/Service)

Niche/Positioning/Branding

Offer/Proposition

Creative Execution

New Customer Acquisition

Customer List Communication

Fulfilment

Database

Post Analysis

Page Production

Design/Layout

Text

Photography Pre-Press

Printing

Distribution

Customer Lists Space Advertising Telemarketing Internet

One-Time Buyers Multi-Time Buyers

Order Entry Order Processing

Track Prospects Customer Data

Figure 4.1 Illustration of the catalogue process. The focus in this project was on the creative execution, specifically the design, layout and page production. (Adapted from Schmid, 2000: 9)

36

laid out. Achieving this in an automated fashion is difficult, as the means by which creative scrapbooks or catalogue designers generate page layouts is usually not easily expressed. The creation of layout is primarily a subjective and artistic task (Geigel and Loui, 2003). Furthermore, there is a real-life efficiency requirement that the search for an automated design should take reasonable time.

Genetic algorithms are appropriate for such tasks because – unlike other more brute force algorithms – the genetic algorithm does not attempt to mimic or model any particular process to create solutions (Geigel and Loui, 2003). Instead, it gener-ates solutions randomly and evaluates them after the fact. From basic information about the image content, genetic modules generate a multitude of potential layout solutions. A system can score these solutions with respect to basic graphic design criteria and compare them with user preferences about each criterion. As the process continues, solutions converge on layouts that closely match the user’s layout prefer-ences (Goldenberg, 2002; Purvis et al., 2003; Geigel and Loui, 2003).

When creating automatic layout, the system must be programmed to know a cata-logues “hot spots” – positions within the catalogue that get higher readership and lend greater emphasis to a product. The hot spots of a catalogue are: the front and back covers, and the beginning, end, and middle of the catalogue (Schmid, 2000: 81-84).

According to Schmid (2000: 89), too many similar pages makes a catalogue look uninteresting. He recommends the use of three or four layout templates, which should be alternated through the catalogue. Schmid (2000: 89-90) includes an overview of different kinds of layouts for catalogues [Figure 4.2]:

• The symmetrical, or grid, layout: This layout divides the page into a series of grids. Grid spaces need not be equal, and a product can be placed over grid lines.

• Asymmetrical, or random, layout: A layout where products are placed randomly on the page. This is a popular design for front-pages.

• Art and text separation: A layout which separates art and text, grouping pictures of products in one location and text elsewhere on the spread. A letter or number keying system makes it easy for the reader to match products with text blocks. This layout is popular in clothes catalogues.

• Product grouping layout: This layout groups several similar products together, often separating art from text. It is similar to art and text separation, but the products are similar and are grouped together in a single picture.

• Product attention layout: This layout places one product on a page or spread to grab attention and to show the product in finer detail.

4.2 ResultsThis chapter presents the results from the research strategy.

4.2.1 Results from the Case StudiesThis chapter presents the results from the qualitative case studies. The complete nar-ratives are found in the appendices. The statements presented here originate from the

37

a.

Figure 4.2 Example of catalogue layoutsa. Symmetrical, or grid, layout (Dustin catalogue, p. 8, Feb 2006)b. Assymetrical, or random, layout (Rusta catalogue, front page, no. 4, 2006)c. Art and text separation (Sport-Thieme catalogue, p. 136, 2005/2006)d. Product grouping layout (Sport-Thieme catalogue, p. 180, 2005/2006)e. Product attention layout (Dustin catalogue, p. 114, Feb 2006)

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respondents of the case studies referred to in brackets.The first case study in Appendix A will be referred to as “Company A”, the second

case study at Vanfu in Appendix B will be referred to as “Company B”, the interview with Toppan Editorial in Appendix C will be referred to as “Company C”, the third case study at Koyo Media in Appendix D will be referred to as “Company D”, and the visit to the exhibition PAGE2006 in Appendix E will be referred to as “PAGE2006”.

Creation of LayoutIn the first case study [Appendix A], the production of a calendar roughly follows this pattern, which is about the same for almost every catalogue produced at that company:

1. Planning of the printing product2. Presenting a set of proposal designs to the customer3. Revision4. Production5. Colour-proof sent to customer6. Corrections7. Second colour-proof8. Final print

A sales person acts as mediator between the customer and the production. The sales person handles all interaction with the customer, such as data transfer, sending and receiving colour-proofs, checking and corrections. The sales person brings these high-level decisions and corrections to the appropriate section for realization.

Layout and pre-flight is done in one unit, which is sent to another unit for minor adjustments.

A totally new printing product is produced in 2 weeks.In the second case study of Vanfu Inc., the production of a catalogue roughly

follows this pattern:

1. Making a couple of example layouts which the customer can choose from2. Production3. Print proof sent to customer for corrections4. Returned print proof with comments written on the proof5. Carry out corrections6. Final print

Toppan Editorial is mainly producing relation material for Toppan Printing. No automatic production is done, except using predefined templates. Layout and content is produced manually in DTP and illustration software.

In the third case study of Koyo Media Co., Ltd., one catalogue example has 40 advertising vendors. Since there were so many vendors, each vendor would most probably have different levels of computer skills. In this case, the solution to data input was to create a digital submission form for each type of data content, based on a spread sheet, which the vendor can download from the Internet. Basic layout and design is provided by a design company, which is arranged manually by an in-house operator. The content in the submission forms is separate from the design of the information.

The layout is created in one section, which is sent to a second section for minor

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adjustments and final arrangements. A paper proof is printed on a colour laser printer, page by page, which is sent to each vendor for corrections. The proofs are returned with comments either handwritten on the page or scanned and sent as a PDF. A second proof is also made and corrected. Finally, a meeting is held with all vendors at the same time and same place for final corrections.

Examples of Automated Catalogue ProductionIn the first case study, one person is working with automated catalogue production. The kind of product that is produced is home electronic appliance catalogue, with a strict layout. All data is stored in a database. Using plug-ins to DTP-software, data is flowed automatically on the page. Layout is based on templates.

In the second case study of Vanfu, the catalogues are template based, with the production being highly database driven. They usually spend 2 weeks for data prepara-tion and 1 week for printing. Of this time, in the latter week, 2-3 days are spent on doing corrections. Templates are created manually in DTP-software, and information is flowed from its source to the template with developed scripts.

The second example in the second case study is the production of a regularly printed catalogue for a single customer. The solution is a specialized and streamlined production for a single customer.

In the third case study of Koyo Media, the layout for the catalogue is based on manually created templates. Information is managed using spread sheets and data-bases. Data flow and transformations are managed by scripts and plug-ins. A central server stores all data and images.

Criteria for Automated PublishingThe case studies resulted in shared criteria concerning automated publishing. The criteria for doing automated publishing could be grouped into attributes of the mate-rial, type of material and type of work.

Attributes of the material for automated publishing:

• Rule or template based design with simple or regular design and layout [Company A, Company B, Company D]

• Material consisting of many pages [Company A, Company B]• Frequently published material with data originating from a database

[Company A, Company D]• Catalogues where each item has a small amount of text, since adjusting large

amounts of text automatically is difficult to do with good result [Company C]• Large amounts of data [Company A]

Type of material for automated publishing:

• Printing products with the need of correct and current information [Company A]

• Business cards using templates [Company A]

Type of work for automated publishing:

• Work that is tedious to do manually [Company B]

Criteria for Manual PublishingThe case studies resulted in shared criteria concerning material or work that should

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not be automated, or was preferred to be done manually. The criteria for doing manual publishing could be grouped into attributes of the material or work, type of material and type of work.

Attributes of the material or the work for manual publishing:

• If the design is irregular, or the layout pattern is limited [Company B, Company D]

• If original data is incorrect to a high degree it will need much manual correc-tion [Company B]

• There are some golden rules for layout, but they are rapidly changing because of fashion and are being broken in a sense to confuse, making intuition impor-tant. This intuition is difficult to automate [Company C]

Type of material for manual publishing:

• Page specific production, one reason being that it will be more efficient to produce it by hand [Company A, Company B, Company D]

• Creative work is very different from time to time, and is thus very difficult to automate [Company A, Company C]

• Company specific print products [Company A]• Artistic print products [Company A]• Material with priority on layout and design [Company D]• Booklets based on text [Company D]

Type of work for manual publishing:

• Colour management such as brightness [Company A]• Operate directions from customers, such as what to improve in an order

[Company A]• When there is a need of doing many preparations before DTP [Company D]• Details almost have to be done manually [Company D]

Goal of AutomationThe goal of automation was reported to be cost-efficiency [Company A].

Benefits of AutomationReported benefits of automation included:

• Cost savings [Company A, Company B, Company D]• Shorter run time [Company A, Company D]• Automation can be set on when leaving the workplace and let the computer do

the work during the night [Company B]

Issues about AutomationReported issues about automation included:

• The difficulty of automation is to do automatic adjustments of text, images and illustrations on a bound area [Company C]

• Advantage of strict layout is that the content is easy to change [Company C]• Creating individual documents may be hindered by laws [Company D]• Automation does not always pay, since it needs the development of many

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scripts [PAGE2006]

Request for AutomationSome companies reported specific tasks that they would like to automate:

• Correction of PDF profile data [Company A]• Automatic selection of templates [Company D]• Automatic creation of borders [Company D]

Person to Person ContactPerson to person communication is sometimes necessary, because it is effective in the following situations:

• First orientation of work, for catching non-verbal information and to be certain about what the customer wants [Company A]

• First presentation and introduction, same reason as above [Company A]• Other consulting phases [Company A]

Benefits of Database UseThe reported benefits of database use were:

• A database permits and increases the efficiency of re-use of data [Company A, Company D]

• A database enables multi-channel publishing. The catalogue can, for example, simultaneously be made available as an Internet shopping site and as an interac-tive catalogue on the Internet. This adds value to the customer. [Company A, Company D]

• Increase in production speed and accuracy [Company D]

Business FactorsThese were reported business factors:

• Time and cost are important business factors [Company A, Company D]• The most important for customers is to sell products, the catalogue in itself is

not the final purpose [PAGE2006]

Workflow ProblemsThese were reported workflow problems:

• Many customers can not prepare information beforehand. They prepare during the process of making the catalogue. [PAGE2006]

• In the first case, there is a need of a having a special section devoted to checking data and changing file names to more proper ones

• If many vendors publish information in the same catalogue, it can be difficult to manage corrections [Company B]

Time-Consuming TaskIn the first case [Company A], when doing automated layout of a catalogue, a time-consuming task is to wait for customer data because the customer is busy. Half of the production time, 1 month, is spent waiting for customer data.

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Improving the WorkflowThese were some advices on how to improve the workflow:

• Use DDCP as a substitute for colour proof, to reduce the amount of film consumed in the prepress process [Company C, Company D]

• Use Computer-to-Plate machines and short-run presses [Company A, Company D]

• Use digital cameras to save cost and time compared to non-digital cameras [Company C]

Measurement of Successful LayoutCompany D reported measurements of a successful layout: It is a balance of income and work time. If a specific product is published several times, it is successful. If the goods in the catalogue sell well or not is also a measure. If there is any possibility of expanding the business by multi-channel publishing, it is successful.

Use of XML StandardsThis is how XML standards are used:

• Company B is planning to use XML standards in the future• Company C is not using XML at the moment• Company D uses XML for text layout, as a tag format• The exhibit PAGE2006 indicates that there are many solutions available for

using XML to manage data. Software solutions are available that integrates da-tabases with automatic publishing using templates. Software tools are available for interactive specification of XSL templates.

Visual Perception of CataloguesThese were some advice on how people visually perceive catalogues:

• The importance of an item in a catalogue is determined by its size, position, use of colour and use of tags [Company C]

• Catalogues can have emphasis on either image or text, or equal emphasis on both image and text [Company C]

Division of EmployeesThe number of employees working with automated catalogue production is small both in absolute numbers and in relation to the total number of employees [Ta-ble 4.1].

Table 4.1 Division of employees

CaseTotal number of employees

Number of employees working with catalogue

production

Number of employees working with automated

catalogue production

Company A 530 34 1

Company B 400 – 1

Company D 180 – 11

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The work duties, however, are not strictly limited to certain sections. In the first case, for example, the CtP-section sometimes does final layout of advertisements [Appendix A].

Type of ProductionThe kinds of printing products that are produced were reported to be:

• Different kinds of product catalogues [Company A, Company D]• Food catalogue and music catalogue [Company B]• Relational material [Company C]

Approach for a Future Publishing SystemA promising approach for a future publishing system is to store data in a database, let a computer do automatic layout of the information, and let the user modify the result manually. The final result should be presented as a PDF. Layout could be created from templates, or from user preferences. [Company C]

4.2.2 Results from the Critical Incident TechniqueThese were the results of trying to identify the most critical incidents for an employee working with catalogue production, using the critical incident technique. Employees reported these tasks as especially critical or demanding:

• Operating heavy data such as big files or many files [Company A, Company C]• Conveying the message of an new, unknown company to the public via adver-

tising [Company A]• Carrying out work with short time requirements, working with narrow

deadlines [Company A]

4.2.3 Results from the SurveyThe number of respondents was 7 of 54, yielding a response rate of 13 per cent. The mode of notification for successful respondents was email in six cases, and telephone in one case. The answers from the questionnaire are presented in the aggregate. A number in brackets after a statement indicates if there is more than one respondent for that statement.

Partial Non-Response ErrorsFor the pilot test, the partial non-response errors were:

• One respondent had problems understanding the questions due to language difficulties. The respondent did not answer question 1.1, 2.6, 3.2 and 3.4.

• One respondent did not want to answer question 3.4.• One respondent did not answer question 3.2.• One respondent did not answer question 2.7 because the terms XML and

SGML were not understood, and did not answer question 3.2 because the question was not understood.

• One respondent could not answer section 3, because they do not produce catalogues in-house but deliver the technology for those who do so.

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• One respondent answered “90%” to question 3.1.• For question 2.3, one respondent put an X in two boxes.

In the revised questionnaire, one respondent reported that question 3.4 did not make much sense for their operation as there is no average time as such in their production. Nevertheless, the respondent answered the question by giving some indication by way of percentages.

One respondent was in the catalogue business, but more or less in printing and binding only. Most of the respondent’s jobs were done by delivered data. Therefore this respondent only answered questions about printing and binding. Section 2 was left out because the respondent did not do automated catalogue production in prepress.

One respondent had outsourced its actual catalogue production, and did not answer question 3.4 for this reason.

Complete Non-Response ErrorsFor five respondents the email address did not exist or was incorrectly spelled.

One respondent answered that they will not respond to the survey.During the time of sending and answering the questionnaire, two respondents

answered with automatic reply that they were out of office.

Answers to Section 1Answers were received from Australia [2], Finland, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland [2].

The respondents classified their companies as in-house agency, advertising agency, software developer, printing company, catalogue agency, catalogue producer and chemical products retailer.

The number of employees working mainly with catalogue production constitutes between 3 and 100 per cent of the total number of employees. The average is 42 per cent.

The number of different kinds of catalogues produced varies from 2 to 50, with an average of 22. One respondent answered “many different”.

The type of catalogues produced includes product catalogues directed to consum-ers [5] and business-to-business [2].

Answers to Section 2If a catalogue can be produced automatically, these are the properties of the catalogue that can be automated (Question 2.1):

• Strict grid-based or template-based layouts [3]• Product images [2]• Product related text [2]• Repetitive tasks in translation• Repetitive tasks in pre-press• Recurring elements• Typography• Product name, technical specifications and data sheets• For basic wholesaler catalogues, the whole process of pagination is possible to

automate

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If a catalogue is difficult to automate, these are the properties of the catalogue that is difficult to automate (Question 2.2):

• The creative part, as cropping of non-product related images [2]• Copy text• Translation of non-repeated texts• Proofing to multiple printers• Price points – these change all the time• Theme – new theme with every catalogue• Visually demanding catalogues typically have requirements of artistic look in it

– this is something that is currently impossible to do with computers• Consumer leaflets, where the images have to be set on each other• Each producer should supply the data of its product. Then, we put it together.

The more data, the better for the customer, the more complicated for us.• Unstructured, individual elements

When asking what type of layout is preferred by readers of the catalogue (Question 2.3), the respondents answered structured [3] and both structured and random [3]. One respondent added the comment that the type of preferred layout depends much on the type of catalogue.

When asking what work should not be automated (Question 2.4), the answer was:

• Creative and inspirational parts such as photography, cropping, and writing text to inspirational parts of the catalogue [3]

• As per question 2.2• Technical data• There is always a need for automation of catalogues, at least for the basic

routines if not for the whole production• Design generally

When asking what the biggest problem is during the production (Question 2.5), the answer was:

• Different range in different sections of the world• Late changes before printing high volumes• The number of author corrections with retail catalogues. Changes are constant

and price changes can be made up until the job is on the press.• The preparation of the catalogue data: It is difficult to make the tools and to

get the people who update the catalogue info to work efficiently and without errors.

• In the pagination process: to validate the user data to the logic, that in the end paginates the catalogue

• Trimming and planning should be clear• Waiting for product [data] from the client• Accuracy with the original• Issues relating to third parties, such as printers, have now been largely resolved

For an automated layout system, it is necessary to have a measurement if a created layout is successful or not. Otherwise the system would just produce results on random. When asking if there is any measurement if a catalogue layout is successful or not (Question 2.6), the answer was:

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• There is no such measure: Sales possibly, but how do you know if it had to do with the layout? [2]

• One measure could be the wasted space on the end-product. Successful pagina-tion of catalogues should not leave too much empty spaces.

• Sales of product for a direct merchant• The customer will ask for it; else, number of visits to the web page of the

catalogue• Foot traffic for a retail store traffic generator

When asking if any standards like XML or SGML are used in the production (Ques-tion 2.7), the answer was:

• XML is used today for automation of text• XML is used today for transferring data between systems before the content

ends up in the catalogue• SGML is currently not used. XML is used when producing something very

straight-forward, like 1-4 pages product cards, where content has direct places and it can be estimated before the production

• Planned to be used• The respondent do not know about the use• Not used

Answers to Section 3The questions for section 3 concerned the average catalogue production at the company. The respondents were asked to think about a typical catalogue production at their company when answering the questions.

When asking how often the catalogue is printed with new information (Question 3.1), the answer was:

• Major release once a year with monthly updates• Every season• Every month there will be about 10 per cent new content. The remainder is

repeat text and pictures.• Some six times per year, or four times per year, or only once per year

Three respondents answered that the number of retailers publishing information in the catalogue is at most one vendor.

When asking in how many versions the catalogue is created, the answer ranged from 146, with 50 of them being significantly different, to three or less versions, with variations only in the front cover, the language, or the prices depending on remote-ness of stores.

There were three answers to Question 3.4 on how long time different operations take to carry out. The answers are presented without aggregation with explanation as follows. One answer was:

• Input of data from retailer / Creation of layout, design work – 2 weeks• Correction of input – 4 days in total• Corrections of proof – Half a day• Printing the catalogue – 1 week• Distributing the catalogue – Distributed over 3 weeks

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Another respondent answered only parts of the question:

• Corrections of proof – None: we expect by delivered data and colour proofs = PDF is ok to print

• Printing the catalogue – Depends on circulation and number of pages. From 24 hours up to 72 hours.

• Distributing the catalogue – Depends on circulation and signatures. 24 hours up to 4 days.

The third respondent answered by way of percentages:

• Preparing the production to get a basis for communicating your offer – 2• Input of data from retailer – 4• Correction of input – 1• Creation of layout, design work – 74• Corrections of proof – 4• Printing the catalogue – 10• Distributing the catalogue – 5

Additional CommentsOne respondent added this comment:

“The issue of automated catalogue production was raised with me some 2 years ago by a local company. My overall conclusion was that it would not fit our client base who want a more free-flowing, creative design and whose products change regularly. It could suit a more grid-based style that utilised repeated images. I’m particularly thinking about supermarket catalogues selling FMCG [Fast Moving Consumer Goods] where the packaging changes only every 18 months or so.”

A respondent to the pilot test added this comment:

”The focus of the questions are on the production part but we also spend a lot of time and effort in preparing that part to get a good basis for communicating our offer before we start to produce. Very few people specialize in this area.”

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Chapter 5

Compilation of Results

This chapter is a compilation of the results from the entire study. Central data are included from the case studies and the survey.

5.1 Results of the Literature ReviewMany researchers in automated layout see it as a problem that many layouts are cre-ated manually by a designer (Goldenberg, 2002; Purvis et al., 2003; Lok, Feiner and Ngai, 2004; Grahn, 2005). This has led to research in automated layout of informa-tion. The most common technique for doing automated layout is the use of templates.

Software solutions are available to automate the data flow and the creation of page layout according to rules or templates, which are produced manually. These solutions are based on scripts or plug-ins to DTP software (for review, see Grahn, 2005).

The XSL-FO technique does not yet support commercial layout-driven produc-tion on a large scale, but tools are available for interactive specification of stylesheets.

Any research literature on catalogue production automation seems not to exist. Research has been done, however, on automated layout, such as:

• Constraint satisfaction (Mackinlay, 1986; Casner, 1991; Weitzman and Wit-tenburg, 1994; Borning, Lin and Marriott, 2000; Bateman et al., 2001; Purvis et al., 2003)

• Learning techniques (for review, see Lok and Feiner, 2001)• Applications of genetic algorithms (Geigel and Loui, 2001; Goldenberg, 2002;

Geigel and Loui, 2003)• Grid based automation (Feiner, 1988; Jacobs et al., 2003)• Evaluation metrics (Harrington et al., 2004; Jones et al., 2004; Lok, Feiner and

Ngai, 2004)• Relationships between the layout and the semantic of the content (Reichen-

berger et al., 1995; Bateman et al., 2001)

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The goals of these research efforts are:

• To automate the production of random layout in the case of picture albuming (Geigel and Loui, 2003)

• To automate the production of magazine layout (Bateman et al., 2001)• To minimize white space and overall aspect ratio when doing automatic place-

ment of items on a page (Goldenberg, 2002)• Adapting grid-based design to arbitrarily-sized electronic displays (Jacobs et al.,

2003)• To automate the production of layout-driven documents (Deach, 1998)• To interactively specify constraints (Borning, Lin and Marriott, 2000)

When creating a catalogue layout, the basic problem is to decide which products to choose, and where to place them on the page. The goal is to maximise the sales by proper placement of product items on the pages.

Although layout is important for a catalogue, the production consists of several steps, which all should be mastered to produce a successful catalogue.

Layout-based formatting respects the constraints of the target medium. This focus on layout places more emphasis on the appearance and location of information than on the information itself. In a layout-driven document it is often necessary to sepa-rately describe the layout, the mapping of content to layout regions, and the styling of the content.

5.2 Case Study ResultsThese were the main findings from the qualitative case studies.

The workflow is separated in all three cases. A mediator is used between the customer and the creative section in two cases.

In all three cases, the production of a catalogue roughly follows this pattern:

1. Planning of the catalogue2. Creation of a proposal design which is presented to the customer3. Revision of proposal design4. Production of final product5. Print proof sent to customer6. Corrections7. Final print

In two cases, the main part of layout is done in one section, while minor adjustments are done in another section.

In all three cases, automatic catalogue production is done of product catalogues with strict layout, using databases and spread sheets to manage data. Layout is based on templates. Information is flowed from the source to the templates using scripts and plug-ins to DTP software.

Reported criteria for doing automatic publishing were:

• The design is rule or template based with simple or regular design and layout• The material consists of many pages

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• The material is frequently published with data originating from a database• The work is tedious to do manually

Reported criteria for doing manual publishing were:

• The design is irregular• The production is page specific, since it will be more efficient to produce it by

hand• Creative work is very different from time to time. This creativity is difficult to

automate.

The benefits of automation are primarily cost savings and shorter run time.Person to person contact is sometimes necessary, because it is effective in initial

meetings and during planning to catch non-verbal information.A benefit of a database is that it permits and increases the efficiency of re-using the

data. It also enables multi-channel publishing which can add value for the customer, if it should have a preference of receiving the information in a certain media type.

The most important business factors are time and cost.A reported workflow problem is that customers can not prepare information

beforehand. Many prepare during the process of making the catalogue.A time-consuming task for one producer is to wait for customer data because the

customer is busy.Two technical advices to improve the workflow is to use DDCP as a substitute for

colour proof, and to use CtP-machines and short-run presses in case there is a rapid need of a colour proof.

Measurement of successful layout is a balance of income and work time. The layout is successful if a specific print product is published several times, and if the goods in the catalogue sell well or not.

For all three case studies, XML is at most used as a tag format for text layout. There are many solutions available, however, for using XML to manage data.

For all three case studies, the number of people working with automatic publishing is small both in absolute numbers and in relation to the total number of employees.

5.3 Critical IncidentsTwo employees reported that operating heavy data and carrying out work in short time requirements was especially critical or demanding. A creative task such as conveying the message of a new, unknown company to the public via advertising was also reported to be critical.

5.4 Survey ResultsThese were the answers from the survey with the highest response frequencies. The frequency of the answer is written in brackets after the answer.

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A catalogue can be automated if it has a strict grid- or template based layout [3]. Product images and product related text can also be automated [2].

The creative part, such as cropping of non-product related images, is difficult to automate [2].

Creative and inspirational parts such as photography, cropping, and writing text to inspirational parts of the catalogue should not be automated [2].

The biggest problems during the production are:

• Different range in different parts of the world [1]• Late changes before printing high volumes [1]• The number of author corrections with retail catalogues because of constant

changes in price and other parts [1]• The preparation of the catalogue data [1]

Two respondents answered that there is no measurement of a successful layout. One of these answers was “sales possibly, but how are sales possible to relate to the layout?”

Two respondents, however, answered that there are measurements:

• Wasted space on the end-product [1]• Sales of product for a direct merchant [1]• Foot traffic for a retail store traffic generator [1]

Overall, XML techniques are either not used at all, planned to be used, used for auto-mation of text, used for data transfer, or used for producing simple printing products.

Three respondents answered how long time, on average, is spent on different operations. One answer was:

• Input of data from retailer / Creation of layout, design work – 2 weeks• Correction of input – 4 days in total• Corrections of proof – Half a day• Printing the catalogue – 1 week• Distributing the catalogue – Distributed over 3 weeks

Another respondent answered this question by way of percentages:

• Preparing the production to get a basis for communicating your offer – 2• Input of data from retailer – 4• Correction of input – 1• Creation of layout, design work – 74• Corrections of proof – 4• Printing the catalogue – 10• Distributing the catalogue – 5

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Chapter 6

Discussion

This chapter is a discussion of the results from the whole study. Creative layout seems necessary to be done manually. More planning and better data organization could reduce the problems of do-ing corrections. Measurement of a successful layout relates closely to the goal of selling products. Such a measurement should thus consider sales. Research is being done on automatic generation of random layout. This chapter also includes a discussion of the initial problem statements and the used methods.

6.1 Automation of Creative WorkThe literature suggests that many layouts are created manually, by a designer. For this reason, there is research on automatic placement of items on a page. Nearly all of the respondents in this study, however, claim that creative layout should be done manually.

Automatic production is a question of efficiency. If it will be more efficient to produce the material by hand, it will not be automated. The break-even seems to be when the production is page-specific.

The case studies and the survey result indicates that catalogue producers either do not want to automate creative work, or believe that creative work is difficult or im-possible to automate. This belief could be due to that there are yet no really successful commercial solutions available for automatic production of creative layout. It can also be an expression that designers, quite naturally, do not want to automate what they are paid to be good at. There is, however, research on this topic, and if the technique would be available for automatic production of layout-driven documents, catalogue producers would most probably show great interest in such a software solution. An approach to this solution was discussed in the case of Toppan Editorial, and is further outlined in the Recommendation for Future Research.

My belief is that solutions for automating creative production is possible and could come within the next decades. A guess is that such a system would be possible to

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develop in 10 to 20 years with a workforce of 10 to 20 researchers, programmers and graphic artists.

6.2 More Planning and Better Data OrganizationThe case studies indicate that customer interaction should not be automated entirely. Human interaction most naturally has to take place at some time, if not otherwise at the stage of doing corrections. The cases studies and the survey indicate that a problem is to have many corrections and late changes. If the errors are due to wrong information from the customer, it is an indication that more planning is needed from the customer. In this case, a suggestion is to spend more time with the customer to plan the product. If the errors are due the producer, it is an indication that producers need to work more carefully.

If it is true that customers cannot prepare information beforehand, that could be a reason why there is a need of several corrections. Especially if information is prepared in the last minute, it is likely to contain errors. If many vendors publish information in the same catalogue, there will be even more errors and consequently more correc-tions.

If there are many customers publishing information in one catalogue, such as in the case of Koyo Media, a standardized input form can help the user to put in information the correct way.

6.3 Measurement of Successful LayoutThe question whether there exists a measurement or not of a successful layout is a hot dispute, based on the response from the case studies and the survey.

A layout is successful if it supports the aim of the catalogue. If the aim is to sell products, a successful layout maximizes the sales of the products in the catalogue. Sales do not depend solely on how products are laid out, but also on the product itself.

There are measurements if the catalogue is aesthetically pleasant or not, such as balance and wasted space on the end product. If a successful layout could be thought of being independent from the sales, a successful layout could be one who conforms to a set of aesthetic rules and norms.

A measurement of successful layout for product catalogues could be a combina-tion of aesthetic measurements and sales for each product, if the measurement is going to promote the overall aim of the catalogue. If popular products have an attractive layout, the overall layout will be more successful than if those products have a bad layout.

Sales and layout measurements could be combined in a generate-and-test manner, to produce an optimal layout based on sales. If the products are identical in form, such as music CD covers in a music catalogue, such a measurement will generate a

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high value if popular CDs stand out from the rest in size or colour. If the products are different in form, the measurement will also generate a high value when popular products stand out from the rest.

Except sales and layout, the measurement also has to take into account what products are being sold, which company is behind the catalogue, what format is used, what actual information is communicated, what paper type is used, and if the colour reproduction is good or not. Paper type and colour reproduction has nothing to do with layout, but has to do with sales. Layout and sales reinforce each other, so a more proper name for this kind of measurement is measurement of a successful catalogue.

6.4 Generic Layout SystemStrict layout usually has a strict separation of design and content. The difficult part is to automate the production when there is a strong connection between the design and the content, such as in advertising. In those cases, an automatic layout system cannot simply pour in data to predefined templates, but has to analyse the relationship between the text, the images and the intention of the creator, and build a layout from these relations.

Separating the design from the content should be a pre-requisite in an automated layout system, since it is the information that is important, not the design. The design helps to communicate the information. If the information and the intent are described, the automated layout system should be able to produce a design from this.

A specialized solution can produce catalogues efficiently. In the case of Vanfu, the design is restricted to its purpose. If the design has to change, scripts have to be rewritten and templates have to be redesigned manually. A future all purpose layout system has to be flexible enough to automatically produce any type of layout.

There are some principles that characterise attractive page layouts, but to break these can produce an even stronger impact on the reader. To produce the wanted effect on the reader, an automatic layout system should not only know these principles, but also how to break them. Encapsulating this intuitional knowledge in a mathematical way, to make it possible for computers to do the work, is probably the most difficult task.

An initial future approach could be to let a system automatically produce a number of draft designs based on user preferences, in the same way as a human designer does in the beginning of the workflow. The user selects the most appropriate design. The system continues to produce solutions based on the selections made by the user, until the solution converges to the user’s preferences.

This solution is appropriate for small companies without design skills. They could be interested in such a solution to quickly and at a low cost produce material with good design without manual intervention. A company that already has designers, or is doing design as its main work, is not in question.

Each case seems to have its own way of organizing and managing data, using different programs and solutions. If a generic layout system is to be built, it should comply with all other solutions used on the market. The system itself should be platform independent. It should be able to input data from Word, Excel and SQL. In

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other words, it should be software independent for input and output to prepare it for the future. This need a platform independent interface, such as XML.

There are scripts and programs available for converting Word and Excel docu-ments to XML data. Standardized input forms could be developed in Word or Excel. Scripts would then transform these documents to XML data. A central publishing system would manage all data.

6.5 Answers to the Original Problem StatementsThe number of respondents of the survey was too low to give a strong quantitative support to the qualitative findings. Nevertheless, there seem to be an agreement on the statements presented in the following as answers to the original problem state-ments.

1. Which part of the production is most time-consuming?The case studies and the survey indicate that there is no single part of the production that takes most time to carry out. This can be generally concluded. Each individual case has to be considered to show the variation of responses.

For one producer and one survey respondent, a time-consuming task is to wait for or prepare customer data because the customer is busy. A statement from the interview during PAGE2006 indicates that this could be due to that customers cannot prepare information beforehand. Many prepare during the process of making the catalogue. One survey respondent wrote that late changes before printing high volumes are a big problem. Late changes do not have to be time-consuming, but this statement nevertheless supports the idea that producers have to wait for customer data. Another response from the survey also indicates that changes can take place at all times, with price changes right up until the job is on the press. All of these statements indicate that a good planning is needed, that data should be organized, and that the work has to done more carefully.

For one survey respondent, as much as 74 per cent of their total produc-tion time is spent on creation of layout and design work. This demonstrates that creative work can take much time of the total production time. So in some cases automation of creative work could balance the time spent on different operations.

For another survey respondent, half of the time is spent on creation and correction, and the other half is spent on printing and distribution. A future research project could be to investigate how to improve the workflow for printing and distribution, although that could already have been done.

2. Which elements of the creative production can be automated to a higher degree than what is done today?The first step of producing a catalogue, planning, can be automated by organ-izing data in a database. If more time were spent on planning this would likely reduce the time spent on corrections, and could decrease the time spent on

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creative work since it will be more clear what the customer wants.If original data are incorrect to a high degree, the data will likely need

manual corrections. These corrections can be taken care of beforehand by installing a database and a database system. In the case of frequently published catalogues, a database could greatly improve the workflow by gathering all data in one place. This could make it easier to keep data up to date since the data are accessible from one central place. A database system can check that the user puts in the correct type of data. For example, an automatic check can be made that all prices are entered without any currency sign.

One respondent to the survey wrote that price points should not be automated because they change all time. If information about prices can be stored and managed by a database system, and the system can be linked to the catalogue production, information about prices and other fast changing data could be updated directly and without errors. There would be no need of a manual update in the catalogue document.

A frequently published catalogue will benefit from having its data stored in a database, since it will increase the efficiency of re-using the data, and enable multi-channel publishing, if tagging the data correctly. The case studies and the survey indicate that there is a high incentive to integrate the product database with the catalogue production. The catalogue should be produced from the original data.

Creating a proposal design and producing the final product is both creative work. The layout can be automated if it has a strict grid, rule or template based design. This restriction, however, will probably change within the next decades as research is done on automated layout, with the pursuit of making automatic creation of creative, random layout.

This restriction of capabilities necessarily restricts the types of catalogues that can be produced automatically. These types are: music catalogues, leaflets for grocery stores, computer catalogues, tool catalogues and direct mail catalogues.

Automated layout is possible today for catalogues that has equal emphasis on content and design. A catalogue with focus on creative design is difficult to produce automatically since it is still only carried out in research.

Work that is tedious to do manually, such as formatting text, should be automated. This work is often repetitious and non-creative in the sense that already defined rules are applied to other elements. These repetitious tasks can easily be failed if done manually. An automation of tedious tasks will leave more time for the designer to focus on creative work.

Yet another case respondent wants do automate the correction of PDF profile data. This is another example of a non-creative work duty that should be automated to leave more time for creative work. It should also be able to automate these kinds of corrections since it is only a matter of comparing variables against values.

The case study findings suggest that corrections both should and should not be automated.

Instead of printing a proof, and then send it by mail or even deliver it by hand, a digital proof in the form of a PDF could improve the workflow. This

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would save cost and time for printing and distribution.Instead of mailing back hand-written proofs, the customer can scan the

document and send it as a file. This would save time for corrections.In some cases, however, employees want to operate directions from

customers manually, such as what to improve in an order. These high level decisions are also difficult to automate.

In the case of many vendors publishing information in the same catalogue, there will also be many corrections. In this situation, a standardized correc-tion form can help. After having collected these corrections forms from the customers, problems for the same parts can be aggregated. Such an aggrega-tion will be a step towards organizing the correction process.

One survey response was that in the case of basic wholesale catalogues, the whole process of pagination can be automated. For wholesale catalogue producers, the case can be that they just have to change the products for each new catalogue. Since they often want to promote an image of their company through the catalogue, it does not have to be a problem that the design is the same from catalogue to catalogue. The design could actually act as a logo for the company. The customer will know from the catalogue’s appearance where it comes from. In this case, it is just a matter of filling the catalogue with repeated images and text, based on templates or grids.

The case studies indicate by example with the division of employees that a successful implementation of an automated catalogue production can decrease the working force to only one person for producing the creative content.

3. What does a higher automation need from the producer and from the customer?The printing industry may have to reconsider its traditions to make its pro-duction more automatic. It can be argued if there really is a need of having to produce a printed proof to the customer. A web or PDF based proof could be sufficient. This change in the workflow would probably improve the efficiency for Koyo Media and its customers, since they have to produce a printed proof for each of their 40 customers. Note also that in this case, the proof is not printed on the final printing machine, but on a laser printer. Therefore, the proof cannot be used in detail to correct colour reproduction, but mainly information. For this reason, a digital proof would be sufficient. The correc-tion of colour reproduction could be improved by using a digital proof and submitting a colour profile for the final printing machine.

The case studies and the survey seem to indicate that preparing data is difficult. In the case of frequently published catalogues with similar content from catalogue to catalogue, a data management system would most likely make the production more efficient. Connecting it with a central database would let everyone work with the same data all time. The system could also check input errors, do preview, and act as a central system for the whole company, including sales, marketing and storage.

The case studies and the survey suggest that better organization and more planning is needed to further automate the production. A computer system cannot do the organization and planning itself, but as a tool be of great help. More planning could help to decrease the number of corrections.

With organization the main point is to have all data in database, accessible

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to everyone from everywhere. Implementing a database system almost needs a computer expert. A database implementation also needs an actual physical organization of documents and photographs.

Corrections could be better organized by having central meetings with every involved partner.

A standardized input form can automate check for input error, and normalize each item. Separating this form from the content is a prerequisite to be able to change the design, but use the same content.

Currently, the majority of automated solutions are available as plug-ins, so the producer has to learn how to use any of these. The dataflow can be automated by scripts, in which case programming skills are necessary. Also, in these cases it is a balance of income and work. The development of scripts could take more time then what is saved by using the final solution. If the script will be independent of the layout creation, the development could be worthwhile, so that different kinds of catalogues can be produced using the same scripts.

Many solutions are based on templates. In most cases, the producer or customer has to create these manually.

To make full use of a database, it may be necessary to learn about multi-channel publishing.

4. Can the production be automated to a higher degree with present technique, or is further research and development necessary?The production can at least partly be automated to a higher degree with present technique. There are many commercial solutions available as plug-ins to well known DTP-software. Detailed data such as price points can be automated by having all data organized in a database, and automatically flow the data from the database to the layout document with available solutions.

Creative layout can only be automated with great difficulty. The case stud-ies and the survey seem to indicate that employees do not want to automate that part either.

There are solutions available to create digital catalogues from printed ones. The XML family of techniques are also useful for multi-channel publish-ing.

There are also consultants specialized in writing scripts and developing solutions for automating the production.

What can be done today to make the production more automatic include:

• Store all photographs and texts in a database• Use plug-ins to automate parts of the production (for review, see

Grahn, 2005)• Let the layout be based on templates• Make the workflow fully digital and interconnect the sections by a

digital network• Use profiles to synchronize and calibrate colours of multiple moni-

tors• Use standardized submission forms in common format to reduce

input errors

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• Separate the workflow into several specialized sections. This seems essential when producing different kinds of material, not only cata-logues. A sole mediator can take care of all communication between the customer and the production. This is an efficiency improvement for the customer since the customer can do all of its business with the mediator. The customer do not have to worry about bringing its decisions to the correct person at the producer, this is taken care of by the mediator.

• Modify pictures using pre-settings• Use CtP and short-run presses• Scan corrections and send them as PDF• Make a specialized solution if there are few customers• Set on automation during the night• Use DDCP as a substitute for colour proof• Use digital cameras to eliminate film processing• Standardize the text length for each item

What should be able to be done in the near future is included in the Suggestion for Future Research.

6.6 Research CritiqueThis chapter is a discussion of the used methods: case studies, the critical incident technique, and the survey. This work has been different from other research efforts in that it has had a strong focus on real production. It has tried to identify a typical catalogue production workflow. Because the case studies have been carried out at Japanese companies, the results from the qualitative approach are biased towards Japanese catalogue producers. For example, Japanese quality requirements are indeed high. The low response rate of the survey made it difficult to generalize the results to catalogue producers in other countries.

6.6.1 Case Study CritiqueIt is unknown if there is any compilation available on catalogue producers. This is a drawback since it is makes it difficult to understand how the studied catalogue producers fit into the general pattern.

As a research strategy, using both a qualitative and a quantitative approach was promising, if the aim is to cover contemporary problems in their proper context. A problem was that it is linear; the qualitative research had to be finished before begin-ning the quantitative research. What should have been done was to make the selection of respondents for the survey as soon as possible. Within the scope of a Master of Science Project with a similar research strategy, the number of case studies can be recommended to be two, not more, not less. The first case study is a pilot test. It will help to understand the issues under study, and prepare for the second case study. Doing more than two case studies will take too much time from the quantitative research. The qualitative data received from two case studies should be enough. The

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quantitative research will reveal any variations in the findings.A drawback of case studies is that they are time-consuming to prepare, report and

analyse. This is compensated, however, by the valuable insight it provides by being able to analyse a situation in its real context.

6.6.2 Critical Incidents CritiqueEach interview for the critical incident technique took about 15 minutes per person. The technique was tried out in the first case study. The visiting time, a couple of hours, was all too short to perform this kind of interviews while simultaneously register other phenomena. It was also difficult for respondents to answer what the general aim of doing layout is.

A practical problem was that all statements had to be translated from English to Japanese, and all answers had to be translated from Japanese to English. These language problems made the method practically ineffective.

This method was not used anymore after the first case study. Most of the fact it was aimed to cover is believed to have been covered by other methods while in the field. It could be successful, however, if the investigator:

• Takes time to learn about interview technique and the psychology behind interviewing

• Has time to interview many people• Will visit many organizations to cover enough number of incidents

6.6.3 Survey CritiqueThe low response of the survey did not make it possible to use the answers from the first section, since this section needed a high response to be of value. The low response is likely to be a combination of the following reasons:

• If a personal email address was not available, the survey was sent to the info, sales, or contact address of the company. An idea would have been to call each company and ask for a specific person to send the questionnaire to, but this would have taken considerable time.

• The survey was only available in English. The willingness to answer might have increased if it had been written in the native language of the respondent. If the researcher has money and time to translate the questionnaire, response rates might increase.

• The respondents were not only catalogue producers, so the target group could have been better chosen

• The pre-notification and questionnaire could have been more focused with more emphasis on the benefits of participation

• One week might not be enough time to answer an email questionnaire. Some answers came some days after the final response date.

• The incentive could have been a stronger one than receiving a digital copy of the final report

• People are oversurveyed

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• People might have low confidence in research carried out via email• People receive too much email• People receive spam email

The reasons can only be guessed, above all since two teachers and one friend reviewed the whole questionnaire before using it. Respondents to the pilot test had no problem with the instructions or the questions, except for some few specific questions. Neither did they have any problem with the layout.

Initial contact was made by telephone in eight cases, but only one of those was successful in receiving an answered questionnaire. It is doubtful whether an initial telephone call will have a positive influence on the response rates. Each call will most likely be different from the other one because of different respondent situations. The contact probably depends more on how the message is delivered, than in the case of sending an email. An email will deliver its message the same way at all times, but a telephone call will partly depend on how the investigator delivers the message.

It seems like the only way to know why the respondents did not answer the questionnaire, is to contact a sufficient amount of companies and ask for a reason why they did not participate, to give an indication on this matter. This has, however, not been done due to the time limit.

Question 2.1 and 2.2 were open since an unrestricted answer was wanted, but a list of attributes could have focused the question to attributes, type of work and type of printing products.

Question 2.3 did not ask for comments but did receive one. Additional comments were also received in the revised questionnaire. This indicates that email surveys can provide extra information.

As suggested by one respondent’s answer to Question 2.4, that question could have complemented question 2.2, but the question was asked in case there was explicit cases that should be done manually.

Although email is personal, not anonymous, it is believed not to have been an issue in this survey since no personal or sensitive questions were asked, with the pos-sible exception of question 3.4.

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Chapter 7

Conclusions

Catalogue production was studied to develop a scheme for a more cost effective production through a more automated catalogue process. The following conclusions were drawn:

• The following printing products are more suited for automatic layout:– Music catalogues selling CDs or DVDs, with a restricted number of image

sizes– Product catalogues with a strict layout based on grids, rules or templates– Database driven catalogues such as computer equipment and tools– Printing products with more than one page

• The following attributes make the printing product better suited for automa-tion:– The layout is based on rules, grids, or templates– The text for each item is normalized– Each item has a small amount of text

• The following preparations can simplify automation:– Organize photographs, text and data in a central database– Use plug-ins to automate the flow of data from its source to its design

document– Modify pictures using pre-settings– Tag the text for typography in a standard tag format– Use a standardized product input form to help the user enter information

the correct way– Separate content from design and tag the content to enable multi-channel

publishing– Make scripts independent of the catalogue they are used for, so they can be

used in different situations– Define rules for typography to apply repetitiously to items– Use profiles to synchronize colours– Use digital cameras to eliminate film processing

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• Not only the technique, but issues of human interaction and of workflow are also important to consider:– Spend time on planning to reduce the number of corrections– Spend time on organizing the data for the catalogue– A common preview site, web service, or PDF-file can replace a printed

proof– Use plug-ins to automate repetitious work that easily can result in errors if

done manually, such as flowing data from its source to the design document– Use a mediator between the customer and the production

• There are no commercial solutions available to do automatic creation of crea-tive, random layout. There is, however, research on automatic placement of items.

• Repetitive and tedious work should be automated to leave more time for crea-tive work

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Chapter 8

Suggestion for Future Research

A suggestion for future research is to investigate how an XML based database information system can integrate with results from research on automated layout [Figure 8.1]. Companies with about ten employees are a suitable target group for this suggestion. The advantage of using an XML-based information system is that it could easily be designed to handle all of the data for the company. The interface can be personalized. Multi-channel publishing is enabled.

A suggestion is to make use of the square-inch analysis tool by Schmid (2000: 31-33), and extend it to analyse how additional elements and characteristics of each item contributes to sales. This information will be used in combination with the automatic layout module to maximize the relationship between sales and layout.

The automation of random layout is the challenge of research, but a promising technique is to use genetic algorithms. The input for the interactive automated layout

Figure 8.1 The data flow for a future publishing system

XML

XSLT

XSL-FO

Interactiveautomatic

layoutsoftwareD

ata

flow

Database

Web site

Web-based datamanagement system

Processor

Formatterabcfgh

Fonts andimages

User preferences

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module is data, fonts, images and user preferences. Layout is automatically produced from user preferences. There should be no need of specifying templates, although it should be available as an option.

The goal is to automate everything between having data ready in a database, to having a catalogue ready to be printed in PDF-format.

By creating an active connection between catalogue production and goods economy, article data are in regular intervals brought up to date in the catalogue. By linking goods economy, the proof reading of article data can be reduced. Corrections can be focused on the remaining text.

The system should facilitate the communication between purchase, catalogue planners, photographers, layout staff, economy staff and customer service. The system should be accessible from anywhere, anytime, by using secure connections and web-based interfaces. Editing layout and correcting information should be able at all times, simultaneously, which is possible if a version control system is integrated with the data management system.

Binding to catalogue production could be made by an integrated interface to InDesign or QuarkXPress using XML.

Standardized input forms can be produced in Word or Excel, which can be transformed to XML by converters to be used in the management system. In the ideal case, the input forms are platform- and software independent.

This kind of system is in part commercially available. Elanders (undated) for example has three interesting products, but the layout is restricted to templates.

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Glossary of Terms

SI (International System of Units) abbreviations for units are used in this work. Other abbreviations and keywords are listed on the next page.

72

Automated Layout The use of a computer program to automate either all or part of the layout process

Catalogue A promotion consisting of a minimum of 12-16 pages. Anything smaller is a brochure or booklet. (Adapted from Schmid, 2000: 222)

CSS Cascading Style Sheets

CtP Computer to Plate

DDCP Direct Digital Colour Proof

DSSSL Document Style Semantics and Specification Language

DTP DeskTop Publishing

Item Grouping of product information into a single, coherent, geometric unit [Figure J.1]

Layout The spatial arrangement of items on a two-dimensional surface

PDF Portable Document Format

Presentation Material that is intended to be viewed and manipulated by people, for example Internet documents, conventional newspapers and catalogues

SGML Standard Generalized Markup Language

XML Acronym for eXtensible Markup Language. XML is used to express informa-tion hierarchically. Nothing in XML is related to presentation or rendition, it is only a language for representing the information. It can be used as a language to transfer information between arbitrary computers.

XML Technology This project mainly covers the family of Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL), specifically XSL-Formatting Objects (XSL-FO). The family also includes techniques such as XML Linking Language (XLink), XML Path Language (XPath), XML Pointer Language (XPointer), and XML Query.

XSL Extensible Stylesheet Language

XSL-FO XSL-Formatting Objects

XSLT XSL Transformations

Today's Special

Italian Grapes1 kg

Only valid with atotal purchaseof over 50 €

2.99 €

Figure J.1 Example of an item

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Appendix A

Complete Narrative of First Case Study

This is a complete narrative of the first case study at an anonymous company in Tokyo. The production is separated in several sections. A sales person acts as a mediator between the customer and the production team.

DetailsThe investigator visited the company together with Mr. Ryoichi Yamauchi from JAGAT. Guidance was done by the Executive Managing Director and the Business Planner.

Date of visit: Friday, 16 December 2005Time schedule: Visit to Tokyo Headquarters, 09:00–11:30. Travel from Headquar-

ters to Operation, including lunch, 11:30–13:00. Visit to Operation, 13:00–15:30.

MethodThis was the first case study, which would serve as a pilot case study. It would help in developing relevant lines of questions and improve the research design. The pilot case would be the first step to understand how production is carried out in reality.

The method was to use a table shell to collect data during demonstration [Table A.1]. The purpose was to study the whole production, and make a detailed description of each step in the production.

Another purpose was to identify the most critical incidents during production, using the critical incident technique. The idea was to identify the most difficult task or

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situation in layout production. The critical incident technique seemed suitable for this purpose, since the visiting time was short and the technique only needs a short time for each interview.

NarrativeThe participants from the company were:

• Executive Managing Director• Business Planner• Production Manager• Division Director• Division Managing Director• Section Manager• Art Director

The purpose of the case study was to study the prepress production with focus on the layout process.

HeadquartersThe headquarters has about 330 employees. The visited operation has about 200 employees. The company produces several hundreds of different kinds of catalogues each year, in various fields.

The meeting began with managing creative director and director of creative center explaining about the production of an award-winning calendar. The work of the calendar began with presenting a set of proposal designs, based on photographs, to the customer. The customer was not satisfied with these proposals, but wanted a calendar with kanji-calligraphy. An artist was consulted to do paintings. They were of such a size, about A3, that they had to be captured by a digital camera. For this product the emotional style was important.

Table A.1 The case study questions were organized in a table shell. The questions in the leftmost column were intended to be asked for each act or process in the production.

Act 1 Act 2 Act 3 ...What act is it?When is it done?Where is it done?(describe environment)How does it work – good or bad?

Required resources:

How long time does it take?

Who is asked?

Who gives the answer?

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A colour-proof of the calendar with the artist’s work was shown to the customer. Japanese customers are sensitive about colours, so small differences from original to print are important. The first colour-proof showed that the colours of the proof were not as vivid as those of the original painting. After a second colour-proof the customer was satisfied.

The paper choice also was important. Japan has a special paper, and the aim was to use a paper similar to that.

The process is about the same for almost every catalogue.The calendar took about 2 weeks of intensive work to carry out. On average a

catalogue takes from 1 to 12 months to carry out.After the explanation of the calendar production, the purpose of the research was

explained.Artistic or company specific print products are usually not good for automation.

Printing products that can be automated are those that are frequently published from a database with the need of correct and current information.

The workflow is separated into several sections, interconnected by a network. The vast part of production has a fully digitalized workflow, a minor part is film based. The data transfer still needs person to person contact. Person to person communication is necessary because it is effective in the following situations:

• First orientation of a work. A sales representative catches non-verbal information and makes sure.

• First presentation. Reason is same as above.• Other consulting phases.

One section specializes in colour adjustment. Since they use many monitors, they need to apply a colour profile to monitors so they show the same colours. The light environment is also important. All photographs are stored in a database.

There is a central database where all material is stored, such as text and photos. Most of the sections are also equipped with a local database. Sometime they re-use the material for new products.

The creation of layout is separated into several sections. They use a so-called “hu-man resource plan”, where a sales person does all the contact with the customer. The sales person develops a basic plan for the customer, taking into account everything the customer want to publish. The purpose of the customer is usually not only printing products, but also web sites, public relation plans, event operations and more. These high-level decisions are brought by the seller to appropriate sections for realization.

The Creative Center at the headquarters has 34 employees and does the actual layout of layout-driven content. One center in the operations is doing automatic layout of database-driven content, with only one operator. Sometimes, even the Computer-To-Plate section in the operations does final overall layout of products such as final placement of multiple advertisements on one big page.

A short interview was done with the Art Director of the Creative Center. This person has been on that position for 20 years. His most difficult task or situation in layout production the last two or three days had been to convey the message of a company to the public via magazines and newspaper advertisements. The company was previously unknown, so the question was which image the company wanted to present to the public. When asking what kind of work this person would like to be

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made automatic, his answer was that creative work is very different from time to time, and is therefore very difficult to automate.

The so called “production group data check team” at the operations sometimes have to change the file name from the customer files to better ones. The group has four members.

OperationA pre-flight is done at the headquarters before sending the material for further processing at the visited operation. The operation is mainly doing small adjustments in the content of the creative work from the headquarters, such as changing from low-resolution to high-resolution images.

A short interview was done with the Section chief of the Production Control Section. This person has been on that position for 11 years. His most difficult tasks are the ones with short time requirements. The work schedule encompasses a 24 hour service. For this reason, they have a time schedule to cover night work and be flexible enough to finish the job as soon as it comes in. This person would like to automate the correction of profile data in a PDF-file. The file may contain information about page width, font, and resolution. On the other hand, colour management such as bright-ness is very important for the Japanese customer, so that should not be automated.

A short interview with a DTP-operator was held. This person had been on the job for 10 years. His most difficult task was to operate heavy data, such as high-resolution images where this person sometimes had to operate on pixel level. To operate the customer’s directions, such as what to improve in an order, was something this person wanted to do manually and not made automatic.

Time and cost are the two most important business factors. The customer wants fast print-outs, for this reason CtP and short-run presses are often used.

The sales person delivers a print-out to customer. The customer checks the print-out and gives comments to seller. The seller directs these comments to the appropriate center which processes them in a linear fashion from center to center.

The operation is doing automatic layout of catalogues, with only one responsible person. The catalogue studied is published four times a year, with products from many different customers. The typical case of printing products produced by automated layout system is home electronics appliance catalogue. All the data for the catalogue are stored in a database. They use Quark XPress together with DBPublisher sold by Koyosha Graphics to automatically place the data on the page. Rule making process is following steps:

1. Analyze a layout pattern of a target printing product2. Optimize layout patters3. Set input items for each page4. Develop a database system from above specification5. Arrange a setting of an automated layout system6. Check the system

The main issue, however, is communication with the customer. The customers are often busy, so it takes time to receive the data. It takes about 2 months to publish the catalogue, including actual work and time spent waiting for customer data. Arranging

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the database takes about 1 month. The next 1 month are spent doing automatic layout of the data, publishing the catalogue for check, and doing final printing. The total time spent on actual work is 1 month, while the rest of the time, 1 month and sometimes more, is spent waiting for customer data.

Another product which is used for automation is Wave from Simple Products.Criteria for automated document creation are large amount of data or documents

of several pages, rule or template based design with simple layout. Productions that are page specific are not suited for automation. The primary goal of automation is cost-efficiency, also by storing data in a database. Advantages of automation is cost cut, shorter run time and enabling of multi use of data, such as multi channel publish-ing.

The operation also has a web based template for production of business cards. Security is high when producing business cards, as it is seen as intrusion of private life if business cards are left open for inspection, so the production of these are carried out behind secured walls.

Lessons Learned for Research DesignThe case studies that would follow needed to be explicitly focused on the layout part, with questions about treatment of data and the layout-process.

The company was too big in relation to visiting time and the questions were too vague to be able to make a fair description of the process. Still, the exploration provided valuable insight into the context of the research, which was the primary goal of the pilot case.

A table shell proved to be quite inconvenient for data collection. It contained too many questions, and was not flexible enough for data registration. Flexibility is important for a case study researcher, since each case is unique, so questions have to be adapted to the situation, and new findings during data collection may need instant redesign of research questions. A better alternative was to have the case study ques-tions in mind as a framework, and adapt the questions during the visit.

The time was too short to simultaneously perform in-depth interviews and do observations. Each interview took about 15 minutes. The kind of questions that were more proper in this short-time exploratory case study was questions directly related to what was demonstrated. It was also difficult for the respondents to answer what the general aim of doing layout was.

One mistake was that the end of the visit was not discussed. The visit took more time than expected, which could have caused problems.

One more mistake was not to explain the purpose of the visit from the beginning, but to wait with this information for some time. The purpose of the research should have been explained as soon as possible during the visit.

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Lessons Learned for Field ProceduresBasic information about the company and time limits had to be collected before the sequential case studies, to be able to make a proper delimitation of the questions.

The investigator had to make sure the questions got a proper answer directly after having received them.

Since both the investigator and the respondent exchanged knowledge through English, a non-native language, translation would sometimes cause ambiguity and shift of intention.

The use of a writing pad was a helpful tool. Before the visit, it was also necessary to make sure enough paper and pens were brought along.

Exchanging business cards is a very common procedure when meeting people for the first time in Japan.

ReviewThe draft report was reviewed by informants in the case. A recognizable version of the draft was shared by email with the case study informants. After they had reviewed the draft, identifies were disguised.

Preliminary findings from the first case study were presented to supervisors and members of the group supervision. Comments from these, together with the lessons learned, resulted in the following changes for the second case study:

• Basic information about the company was collected before the visit• The visit focused on automation of printing products and problems in produc-

tion• A plan was made to begin the visit by explaining the purpose of the research,

and also to bring along examples of catalogues being studied for the purpose of the project

• Business cards were printed

The corrections made through this process enhanced the accuracy of the case study, hence increased the construct validity of the study.

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Appendix B

Complete Narrative of Second Case Study at Vanfu

This is a complete narrative of the second case study at Vanfu in Tokyo. Two catalogue productions are described. Both productions are database driven, with the layout based on templates.

DetailsName of company: Vanfu, Inc.

Address: 2-29, Shimomiyabi-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-0822Date of visit: Monday, 16 January 2006Time: 10:00–11:45Total number of employees at Vanfu, Inc.: about 400Number of people working with catalogue production: 1 (one)

MethodHaving learned from the first case study, and also having become more conscious of the research objective, the method was changed for this second case study. The critical incident technique was not used anymore, since it needed at least 15 minutes per person. It is believed that other methods while in the field will cover what the critical incident technique was aimed to cover.

A table shell was not used anymore, because of its inconvenience and inflexibility when collecting data.

With the case study questions in mind, the approach was to use just an empty paper. While demonstration was going on, a narrative was written, and questions

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were adapted to the situation to answer the case study questions.These were the case study questions:

• Name of company?• Location?• Number of employees?• Number of people working with catalogue production?• Number of catalogues produced?• Average number of pages?• Types of catalogues produced?• What is it that makes a printing product suitable for automation?• What are the motifs for automation?• What work is not suitable for automation?• What work is preferred to do manually?• Is it possible to separate design from content in a printing product? For which

products? When is separations needed? Which situations?• Do the company have personal information to be able to create individual docu-

ments?• How is production of a catalogue done?• Are any standards used (XML Schema, DTD)?• How is the following processed?

– Input of data from customers, including advertising– Layout– Styling of the content– Placing styled-content into the layout– Review/Check/Colour-proof

NarrativeThe investigator visited the company together with Mr. Ryoichi Yamauchi from JAGAT. The participants of the company were:

• Section Manager of Technical Center, Mr. Sunao Oohashi• Chief of Technical Center, Mr. Satoshi Oshikubo

The meeting began by explaining the research and showing some examples of catalogues relevant for the study. It was told that the result of the research will be a public report, and that Vanfu can be anonymous in the report. The participants were also asked to review the draft before publishing.

Mr. Oohashi and Mr. Oshikubo explained and demonstrated the production of two of their catalogues. Both solutions were developed by Mr. Oshikubo.

First Example ProductionThe first example was the production of a food catalogue. It is printed 4 times a year. It is made in 8 different versions for different customer area, and as such has 8 differ-ent vendors. Its layout is template based, and the production is highly database driven.

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The work of this catalogue began with making a couple of example layouts which the customer could choose from. The workflow begins with receiving vendor data as an Excel file by email or FTP. A script is used to transform the Excel data to be imported in a FileMaker database. This FileMaker instance is exported as a comma separated value (CSV) file. Using an AppleScript the data in the CSV file are flowed to a Quark XPress template [Figure B.1].

The workflow can be described as a series of steps:

1. The original data are found in an Excel file.2. Corrections and original data from the customer are then stored in Lotus

Notes. This is due to the customer’s convenience. The customer wants to use Lotus Notes.

3. An instance of the Lotus Notes database is exported as an Excel file, which is flowed to a FileMaker database using a script. This FileMaker instance is then exported to a CSV file using a script.

4. An AppleScript is used to flow data from the CSV file to a Quark XPress template.

5. The catalogue layout is created in Quark XPress by help of the AppleScript.

A second phase of the automatic layout production in Quark XPress is to create index pages, once again using an AppleScript.

Images are stored in a directory with a link in FileMaker. They are transferred to the template via the AppleScript. Images are received from the vendors and are only checked for resolution and size.

The whole solution took 2-3 weeks to develop. Usually, Vanfu spends about 2

Export withscript

Export withscript

QuarkdataAppleScript

Customer

Vanfu

Data flow indirection of arrow

(Operator only needs information)

8 different vendors

1 operator

1 manager

Lotus Notes(DB)

FileMaker(DB)

Excelsheet

CSV file

Figure B.1 The data flow in the first example catalogue production. Corrections from all vendors are taken care of by one manager, illustrated by the many arrows between the manager and the vendors. The operator only needs the information for creating the catalogue. The manager transmits this information to the operator.

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weeks for the data making and 1 week for printing. If all data are ready to be used, it will take 2-3 days for one person to produce the catalogue and make it ready for printing. If the solution is not used, the catalogue will take one person 1-2 weeks to carry out.

The last step of flowing data to templates is all about waiting for the computer to work, so this can be set on when going home from work.

The layout of the catalogue is changed by editing the template and by rewriting the AppleScript.

A print proof is sent to the vendors for check. The vendors return comments for corrections. The comments are usually written by hand on the proof. This is done at most 3 times. The number of correction turns depends on the person. The check takes 2-3 days for each print proof.

One workflow problem is that one person is responsible for controlling the corrections for all versions. There are 8 vendors who publish information in the cata-logue. They send their corrections now and then to one person. After having collected all corrections, the catalogue is ready for editing and type setting. Instead, the vendors should preferably do all corrections themselves. This catalogue is institutional, and is for internal consumption only. So the vendors try to do the corrections themselves. If Vanfu finds some corrections such as spelling error, Vanfu carries these out.

Second Example ProductionThe second example was the production of a part of a free music catalogue. It is produced in one version, for one customer, and is printed each month. There are only two main differences in the workflow from the previous example [Figure B.2]:

1. There is only one customer.2. The original customer data are a comma separated data file coming from a

Kiri database instead of an Excel file.

An AppleScripts is used to flow data from a CSV file to a Quark XPress template, another AppleScript is used to adjust white space of the resulting pages. Empty space is usually filled by adding advertisement or moving around other parts in Quark XPress.

Quarkdata

Customer Vanfu Data transfer indirection of arrow

Kiri (DB) FileMaker (DB)

CSV file

Export withscript AppleScript

Import intoFileMakerwith script

Figure B.2 The data flow in the second example catalogue production. The main differences in the workflow from the first example production are that there is only one customer, and that the original data is in another format.

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Overall ProductionVanfu produces 3 catalogues in total. The third one is similar to the food catalogue.

A printing product is suitable for automation if it has regular design and consists of many pages. Automation is suited for work that is boring to do manually, and it is also a question of revenue.

A printing product is preferred to do manually if it has few pages, since it will be more efficient to produce it by hand, if the original data are incorrect to a high degree, since it will need much manual correction, and if the design is irregular.

They are planning to use XML standards in the future.

Lessons LearnedThe second case study went much smoother, and actually ended before appointed time, with all questions answered. Doing a pilot case was indeed very helpful to improve the case studies that were coming.

One key question for the next case study was how many people were involved in the catalogue production, as this number decided much of the scope of the questions.

ReviewThe draft report was reviewed by informants in the case. A recognizable version of the draft was shared by email with the case study informants. Some additional ques-tions were included to clarify some parts of the demonstration.

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Appendix C

Transcript of Interview with Mr. Nakajima Yuji from Toppan Editorial

This is a transcript of an interview with Mr. Nakajima Yuji from Toppan Editorial. They are producing public relation material for Toppan Printing. No automatic layout is done, instead predefined templates are used.

DetailsName of interviewed: Mr. Nakajima Yuji at Toppan Editorial Communications Co., Ltd, a subsidiary of Toppan Printing Co., Ltd.

Place of interview: Shibaura Institute of Technology, Omiya Campus 307 Fuka-saku, Aiba Laboratory, Minuma-ku, Saitama-shi, Saitama 337-8570 Japan

Translator: Prof. Akira Aiba kindly aided in translation between Japanese and English

Date: Tuesday, 31 January 2006Time: 14:00–16:20

MethodThis was an open interview with Mr. Yuji on production of catalogues at Toppan.

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NarrativeThe meeting began with explaining the research and stating the conditions and guarantees that could be offered for participation in the project. Next, the questions from the case study protocol [Appendix B] were discussed and answered.

The total number of employees at Toppan Printing is about 15 000. The number of employees working with catalogue like production is about 1 000. Toppan Editorial Communications mainly produces public relation material for Toppan Printing. Each year 2–3 catalogues are made for the company. In total, catalogues stand for 10–20 per cent of the total production at Toppan Printing. About 1 000 companies are contracted with Toppan Printing for catalogue production. Toppan Printing has a vide variety of printing orders; from printing of government documents to printing of manga (Japanese comics). About half of their magazine production is manga.

Desktop publishing (DTP) was introduced in Japan around 1990, with the intro-duction of Apple PowerMac. Adobe software and Microsoft Windows became popular around 1998–1999 and is becoming even more popular these days. Adobe InDesign is becoming more popular, one reason that it has good links to other Adobe software such as Photoshop and Illustrator.

Printing technique is rapidly changing. For example, colour separation can now be done in the printing machine, who accepts digital data such as RGB, due to the popularization of digital cameras. Toppan and small companies use direct digital colour proof (DDCP) as a substitute for colour proof, to reduce the amount of film consumed in the prepress process. DDCP is a step to unify design and layout in digital form.

Automatic production is not used; instead predefined format or templates are used. Layout is produced manually in Quark XPress, and the content to be placed on the page is created manually in Illustrator. The latest version of Quark XPress is 6 in Japan, but version 4 or 3.3 is used due to stability and cost of upgrading.

Their biggest problem in production is the quantity of data.Digital cameras can improve the workflow both in cost and time compared to

non-digital cameras.High quality of photos is important in Japan, almost a requirement.According to Mr. Yuji, the difficulty of automatic layout is to automatically adjust

textbox content according to text size, and then automatically adjust images and illustrations to fit the content frame.

An advantage with strict layout is that the content is easy to change.The type of layout depends on the customer and its purpose. Random layout

would be useful in some situations.Automation would be suitable for catalogues where each item has small amount of

information, since adjusting large amounts of text automatically is difficult to do with good result.

Mr. Yuji mentioned some aspects of the perception of leaflets. When viewing a leaflet for the first time, the eye quickly moves over the page in a Z pattern. The eye starts in the upper most left corner, moves in a Z pattern to the lower most right corner, searching for the most important items. The importance of an item can be determined by its size, position, use of colour, and use of tags. A catalogue from a grocery store, for example, can make an item more important or attractive by using

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red price tags, choosing the correct position, and make the item bigger than the rest of the items [Figure C.1].

The first impression of a catalogue is usually what the eye catches. Facts and data are secondary in impression. But this depends much on the type of products that are presented in the catalogue, and what type of products is searched for. When searching an outfit catalogue, images are clearly important. Sometimes it is the reverse, such as when searching for spare parts to a car motor. Then it is the information which is most important.

Toppan Editorial Communications is not using XML at the moment. However, an e-business division of Toppan Printing is using XML for web pages. Using XML may be motivated if the technology level of others outside the catalogue producer is at the same level. If the buyer of the catalogue and the printing company does not have the same level of technology as the catalogue producer, XML is of less use for transfer of information between the producer and its associations since they do not have support for it. But of course XML can be used internally for information transactions.

The concept of content-driven versus layout-driven production was presented for Mr. Yuji. He has the belief that layout-driven production is difficult to automate, because it is mainly creative work. There are some golden rules for layout, but they are rapidly changing because of fashion. The rules can be broken in a sense to confuse, making intuition important.

The catalogue should be suited for its audience. For example: A leaflet of department for a technical university should maybe have a confusing layout to suit its audience of young people.

An approach for a future automatic publishing system was discussed. This could be to store data in a database, let a computer do automatic layout of the catalogue, and modify the result manually by a human user. The result should be presented as PDF. The layout could be created from templates, or let the user choose preferences which

3 €/kg.................

Grocery

2 €/kgPears...................

Mixed Fruit ........................

Week 2

Ice Cream.......... 1 €/kg

Banana................

Melon

10 €.... ....

22

24

Welcome! ... ... ....... ... ... .... .... ... ..

..... . .. .. .. ..

1.5 €/kg

1 € each

1 € each

Figure C.1 Constructed example of a food catalogue from a grocery store. The eye should be drawn to the mixed fruit item, the melon item and the ice cream item because of the star formed price tags, the colour combinations and the size of the items.

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should be reflected in the automatically created layout.

ReviewThe narrative of this interview was shared by email with Mr. Yuji. Some questions were also asked to clarify some parts of the interview.

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Appendix D

Complete Narrative of Third Case Study at Koyo Media

This is a complete narrative of the third case study carried out at Koyo Media headquarters in Tokyo. The production of a catalogue from Tokyo Business Association of University Co-Operative was demonstrated. The production is driven by spreadsheets and databases. The layout is based on templates.

DetailsCompany name: Koyo Media Co., Ltd.

Homepage: http://www.koyo-net.co.jp/koyomedia/index.html [2006-02-15]Adress: 8, Tsukijimachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-0818Date of visit: Wednesday, 1 February 2006Time: 15:00–18:00

PreparationsBefore the visit to Koyo Media, the company suggested the following visiting sched-ule:

1. Presentation of my research2. Koyo Media explain their work3. Coop explain their work4. Visit to production site5. Interview

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Case study questions were sent in English to the company before doing the visit. Also, a colleague kindly translated the questions to Japanese.

NarrativeThe visiting schedule was as follows:

1. Short explanation of my research by Prof. Akira Aiba in Japanese2. Presentation by Koyo Media3. Visit to production site

The participants from the company were:

• Managing director, Mr. Tomizo Kanaya• Vice-chief of first manufacture department, Mr. Hirosi Nakamura• Head of development room, Mr. Mitsuhiro Tanabe• Vice-chief of second Sales Department, Mr. Shizuo Aiba• Chief clerk of the second Sales Department, Mr. Kenta Negishi• Translate assistant, Mr. Bunzo Ono

The section chief of advanced planning department of Tokyo Business Association of University Co-Operatives (Coop), Mr. Takehisa Kuriyama, also joined the meeting.

The investigator visited the company together with Prof. Akira Aiba.

Presentation by Koyo MediaKoyo Media has 180 employees, with sales of 4 billion yen, placing it in the upper middle class of Japanese printing industry.

Koyo Media was established 1 November 1950. Its capital is 100 million yen, with headquarters in Tokyo. Its business content is:

1. Project planning, editing, and information value creation2. Information processing and production business:

• Database storage of text and image• Automatic editing• Automatic typesetting• Full digital network environment by DTP using Mac, Win and Shaken (a

Japanese DTP system)• Use of DDCP and CtP

3. Printing and bookbinding4. Dispatch, sales management, stock management, and warehousing5. Publishing

Example of Research and Technology at Koyo MediaAn example of research and technology at Koyo Media is the development of a catalogue database:

1. The advantage of database technique• Rise of speed and accuracy

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• Increase in efficiency of work for next time• Output the data from an identical database to various media – web, DVD,

digital catalogue – for various purposes2. A booklet and web site are created simultaneously

• The submitted manuscript data are managed and creates the printed matter, web site or mobile phone site etc.

• A database can standardize and manage all prices which are displayed on different media

3. The important point of database creation• Digital submission of manuscript form and manage all product information• Propose to each client that submission form should be as simple as possible,

such as Excel• Koyo Media introduced a management system for product information

with a digital submission form

Koyo Media need to develop the database them self. They prepare a specific Excel form for each project and send it to the client, who returns a filled in form. Koyo Media then develops the database.

Real Example of a Catalogue DatabaseKoyo Media presented an example of the university co-op new school term catalogue of 1 February 2006 issue [Figure D.1]. The catalogue has 40 advertising vendors, and 3 000 buyers. It is printed once a year, in 5 different versions for different geographic locations.

The submission of information to be displayed in the catalogue is done by a digital form. The assumption was that the client had various PC skills. So Koyo Media proposed an Excel based submission form for everyone. Koyo Media created different submission forms depending on the type of content, for example one submission form for “curtain and carpets” [Figure D.2] and another submission form for “furniture and household electric appliances” [Figure D.3]. The details of the content were created together with the person in charge. About 10 templates are used for the catalogue. The Excel template is separate from the design of the content.

Figure D.1 Front page from the Heya catalogue.

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To add value for the buyer, the catalogue is also available on the Internet as a shopping site (Tokyo Business Association of University CO-Operatives, 2006a) and as an inter-active catalogue (Tokyo Business Association of University CO-Operatives, 2006b). The Web catalogue is a customized version of Macromedia Flash Player using a technique called ActionBrowser. It lets the reader turn pages like a real book by click-ing with the mouse. Therefore, it is kind to everyone. The reader can add bookmarks, click on hyperlinks to view videos of the item, click on hyperlinks to be linked to the shopping site for the item, check details by a zooming function, and print pages.

The shopping site is an Internet version of the same content. Products are chosen by adding them to a virtual shopping cart.

Other examples of database use are university co-op driver’s licence school cata-logue, university co-op hotel guide, and encyclopaedia of Japanese family symbols.

Answers to Protocol QuestionsKoyo Media had answered the questions from the protocol that was sent to them

Figure D.2 Excel submission form for “curtain and carpets”

Figure D.3 Excel submission form for “furniture and household electric appliances”

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before the meeting.1. What is the total number of employees at the company?

In total the number of employees is 180. Headquarter is mainly doing pre-press and has 85 employees. A factory in Saitama is mainly doing printing and bookbinding and has 95 employees. There are 35 persons at pre-press, 30 at press, 60 at processing, bookbinding and dispatch, 50 at management level, and 5 at corporate executive office level.

2. What is the number of employees working with catalogue production? The number of people working with catalogues like the Coop catalogue is 3 business managers, 3 people at research and development, and 5 people at Mac DTP and press related work. Research and development is done on Internet and text processing.

3. Number of catalogues produced? Koyo Media produces 24 different catalogues. The university co-op catalogue was produced in 3 million copies in year 2005.

4. Types of catalogues produced? The types of catalogues produced are for example “a lighting house notebook”, “a calligrapher notebook”, “Chemicals manual”, “Family crest encyclopaedia”, catalogue shopping, hotel guide, school term catalogue, catalogue book fair, driver licence pamphlet, and software catalogues.

5. What is it that makes a printing product suitable for automation?• Analysis of layout• Database item arrangement• Reuse prediction of original data• Data submission manuscript and common form of submission: The advan-

tage of having an Excel based submission form is that the producer does not need to correct the number of characters and the distinction of character size. The use of a submission form is an efficiency improvement.

6. Why should a printing product be automated?• Saving time when typesetting requires much corrections• Saving time when typesetting has repetition of same layout• Saving cost

7. What printing products are preferred to do manually?• When layout and design is priority• When the printing product hardly can use the same layout from page to

page. If each page has a unique layout design, it is going to be difficult to pour data from database to layout.

• When there is a unique design pattern. It is manually done by Mac DTP.8. What work is preferred do to manually?

• When there is a need of doing many preparations before DTP. Example of such work is clipping of images, since the size of most images is not uni-form. Fine adjustments are needed for pictures of each different layout.

• A booklet based on text, for example a novel or a thesis• Printing products requiring high design level for each page

9. Can the design be separated from the content? If so, for which products can the separation take place? For which purpose is the separation necessary? Although separation is possible as work, it will be the requisite that there is

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no change of the number of items of a database. Although the layout correc-tion is possible after pouring in the data, it requires time and effort.

10. Are any individual documents created from personal data? If so, what kinds of products are produced? For example, list of names have been used to create individual printing products, but this kind of production is not performed now due to Protection of Computer Processed Personal Data held by Administrative Organs.

11. Is there any measurement if a printing product is successful or not?• It is a balance of income and work time• If the work is published several times, it is successful• If the goods sell well or not is also a measure• The possibility of expanding the business by multi channel publishing

12. Are any standards used (XML, SGML)? In some cases XML is used for text layout, as a tag format. Koyo Media uses Access and Excel for arrangement, processing and management of data. They use WAVE (automatic DTP typesetting software) for automatic typesetting processing. DTP is done on Macintosh.

13. How is the following taken care of?• Input of data: by Excel form, which the vendor can download from a

homepage.• Creation of layout: Basic layout design is provided by a design company,

which is arranged manually by an in-house operator.• Check and corrections of proof: Check is done in all processes of DTP

– CtP – print – bookbinding. Check is done from first to final proof.

Visit to Production SiteA visit was made to the production site, to study the production of the Univ Coop Catalog Shopping [Figure D.4]. It is a monthly issue except for summer vacation.

A plug-in to AutoCAD called WAVE is used to create the layout of the catalogue. WAVE is used to create templates. Different templates are created depending on

Figure D.4 Front page of the Univ Coop Catalog Shopping, February-March 2006

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importance of items. This page layout is created manually. A product called XML Automagic from Simple Products is also used. About 35 per cent of 300 high rank companies in the Japanese printing industry use software from Fujifilm Simple Products that developed XML Automagic. Koyo Media guesses that about 15 per cent of those companies use XML Automagic.

Information is flowed from Excel-data to these templates in a number of steps:

1. There is one Excel-sheet for each item on the page.2. The Excel file is transformed to a text file using AWK and SED, two script

languages for manipulating text data.3. The text file is imported in Microsoft Access, for ease of editing. The page

number and page position of the item is chosen in Access [Figure D.5]. The user can also import previously used items from the Access database.

4. The Access data are transformed to an XML file using AWK.5. Templates are created manually in AutoCAD and WAVE. There is one tem-

plate for each page. The choice of the proper template is done manually. Items are flowed from the XML file to the template using WAVE. The advantage of

Example of item

Item position(2651=Page 26,

Row 5, Column 1)

Figure D.5 Spread from the Univ Coop Catalog Shopping (August/September 2005), with example of the concept of an item and its position.a. Spread of the Coop catalogueb. Example of item from the catalogue

a.

b.

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using AutoCAD is that placement and adjustments of items can be done with extreme accuracy.

All pictures are accessible from a database. They are brought from the vendor by memory stick or hard drive. Pictures are modified somewhat manually in Macintosh using Photoshop pre-settings. Modifications depend somewhat on the type of item, such as food or computer equipment.

The process continues:

6. The filled template is stored as AutoCAD data.7. AutoCAD data are exported as an EPS image.8. The EPS image is sent to a Macintosh section for manual placement into a

Quark XPress document [Figure D.6]. The document contains manually cre-ated borders.

9. A paper proof is created on a colour laser printer, page by page, which is sent to each vendor. The vendor returns comments, usually handwritten on the proof. Some vendors scan the proof with the comments and send it as a PDF. A second proof is made after having manually adjusted the corrections. This proof is also checked by the vendors.

10. A meeting is held with all vendors for half a day to do final corrections.11. The Quark XPress document is exported as PDF file.12. Plate making is done using an in-house Computer to Plate, CtP. Using CtP is

a matter of cost saving.

All changes in layout, size of the items etc. are done in the layout section. Final layout, proofs, corrections, and print are done in the Macintosh section. The same server is used for both sections.

Manually created borders

The EPS file is mounted in aQuarkXPress document

Exporting EPS file from AutoCAD QuarkXPress document

Macintosh section doing check, proof,corrections, and other DTP work likebooks, magazines and posters

Layout section of Coop catalogue

Figure D.6 Illustration of placing the EPS file in the QuarkXPress document. The result is the right page of the spread in Figure D.5.a. Layout is created in AutoCAD by the layout section. The AutoCAD data is exported as an EPS file, which is mounted in a QuarkXPress document by the Macintosh section.

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The Macintosh section has about 25 computers, and also does other DTP work like producing books, magazines and posters.

They say that details almost have to be done manually.The Macintosh section would like to automate the production of the borders in

the Quark XPress template.The layout section would like to automate the proper selection of templates for

the items.

ReviewThe draft narrative was shared with informants in the case. Some additional questions were included to clarify some parts of the visit.

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Appendix E

Complete Narrative of Visit to the Exhibition PAGE2006

This is a complete narrative of the visit to the exhibition PAGE2006 in Tokyo. A description of software solutions is included as well as a narrative of a short interview about automation.

DetailsName of exhibition: PAGE2006

Arranged by: Japan Association of Graphic Arts Technology (JAGAT)Exhibitors: About 100 companies, mainly Japanese, in the printing industryHomepage: http://www.jagat.or.jp/PAGE/2006/index.htm [2006-02-16]Location: Sunshine City, 2-4 floor, Ikebukuro, TokyoDate and time of visit: 2-3 February 2006, afternoon

Purpose of VisitWith the case study questions in mind [Appendix D], the aim was to visit companies, search for solutions for automated catalogue production, ask for demonstration of products, discuss the case study questions, obtain an overview of products on the Japanese market, and receive new ideas for the research.

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Short InterviewA short interview was held with the Managing Director of a vendor of Catalog Composer, which is a semi-automatic software for catalogue production. Catalog Composer uses a database to flow information to manually created templates. It is also available in an English version. The Director had the opinion that automation does not pay, since it requires many scripts. The most important thing for customers is to sell products. The catalogue in itself is not the final purpose.

Many customers can not prepare information beforehand. Many prepare during the process of making the catalogue.

Regular design of the catalogue can be motivated. Some kind of confusion might be appropriate for marketing purpose.

SoftwareFounder has the before-mentioned (Chapter 3) software FounderFIT. It has a built in automatic database page layout tool called “Pattern”. This tool is used to create patterns for items in the catalogue. Once a pattern is defined, it is saves as a template in a pattern library. The placement of each pattern is still done manually, but Founder informs that they are working on an automatic layout feature.

Rococo is the vendor of Meta Works. It works together with Adobe InDesign to create an automated formatting system that executes the instruction of XML-based meta-data. A design tool is used to create instruction file that sets the direction of formatting, and handles the adjustment of text and images. The instruction file is saved as an XML schema called AutoFOX, which is automatically formatted. The output is an InDesign document, EPS or PDF. So basically it is an XML formatter for a proprietary XML format, with an InDesign document as output.

Fujifilm Simple Products has a number of solutions for catalogue production: XML Automagic, DTP Spider, Form Magic, and Web Autolayout Server. XML Automagic is a plug-in for AutoCAD to flow information from an XML database to manually created templates.

LayoutMagic from SunBridge Solutions is a solution for producing catalogues from pre-defined templates.

Kobundo has a solution for producing electronic catalogues that behave similar to the printed version, KBD e-Book, and a solution for managing publishing data using XML called KBD Publisher X.

ProField has a range of publishing tools like ProDIX and ProAPP, however only in Japanese. They also sell an XML management system called NeoCore.

My PAGE View is a solution for producing an electronic version of a catalogue.Yubunsha and TAPCOM have solutions for producing leaflets.

XMLOn the XML front, Antenna House has a tool for interactive specification of XSL templates using a graphical user interface. It is called XSL Report Designer, which is

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available as evaluation version for free on their homepage (Antenna House, 2006).Next Solutions has formatters for SGML/XML, called DSSSLprint and NEXT-

Publisher, and a software for creating DSSSL stylesheets, called NEXTStylus.Digital Communications has a solution for converting Word documents to XML

data, called Word2XML.

AnalysisFor Japanese catalogue publishing, there seem to be three trends: use of XML to man-age data, use of publishing systems to flow data to templates, and to make the printed catalogues available as an interactive electronic catalogue.

The interview respondent might have been slightly biased towards what the company is selling.

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Appendix F

Introduction Letter

This is the introduction letter which was sent to the company that produces catalogues for Coop, explaining about the purpose of the research and conditions for participation, with a request to do direct observation of the production. Appropriate parts of it were kindly translated to Japanese by a student colleague before being sent to the company. It serves both as an introduction and as an overview of the project.

To (company name):I am a student of computer science at KTH in Stockholm, Sweden, doing my Master of Science project at Shibaura Institute of Technology. My project is about automated layout of catalogues. The purpose is to study how layout of catalogues is done, and how the process can be automated. For this purpose, I am undertaking a series of case studies. (Company name) is producing the kind of catalogues I am studying and thus is very suitable for a case study.

Ultimately, by means of this case study approach, I hope to identify and document answers to such questions as: How is layout of the catalogue done? How much time and resources is required? How is data for the catalogue managed? What part of the process should be made automatic?

For the case study, I would like to do a direct observation of how catalogues are produced, from creat-ing ideas to making the catalogue ready to print. Your cooperation is most essential if the case studies are to successfully guide and support my final project.

The result of the research is a public report.

If (company name) is willing to let me perform a case study, it will have:• the right to withdraw at any stage of the research,• the potential to improve its situation from the research,• the option of anonymity and non-traceability in the research if wished,• the ability to review the draft before publishing.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Sincerely,Karl-Johan GrahnRoyal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden

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Appendix G

Field Procedures

This appendix describes how access was granted to key organizations. Access to Coop and JAGAT was made by telephone calls, email correspondence, and personal meetings.

Tokyo Business Association of University Co-OperativesThe case of Tokyo Business Association of University Co-Operatives (Coop) was chosen mainly because of three reasons:

1. Earlier student co-operation had been successful.2. Catalogues from Coop were quite typical in appearance to other regularly

printed product catalogues. The most important qualification for having similar appearance was that the catalogue was layout-driven.

3. One of their stores was close to the author’s work place.

An initial meeting with Coop was held on 14 October 2005. Prof. Aiba followed to the store to introduce the investigator and act as interpreter. The investigator was introduced to the store owner, and asked for reference to the responsible person for the catalogue production at the native corporation. Prof. Aiba was given the email address to this person, to which he sent an email explaining about the purpose of the research. The reply was acceptance to answer questions about the research. The direct communication with this company was later overtaken by a work colleague. After some further clarification of the case study’s purpose, the company agreed to exhibit their production.

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Japan Association of Graphic Arts TechnologyA telephone call was made to Mr. Ryoichi Yamauchi, Director at Japan Association of Graphic Arts Technology (JAGAT), briefly explaining about the project and asking for help to meet companies and do case studies of their production. The phone call was followed by an email to Mr. Yamauchi, explaining more carefully about the project. After some correspondence by e-mail, a personal meeting was held at Shibaura Institute of Technology (SIT) to discuss the study. Based on the given explanation, Mr. Yamauchi had chosen two candidate companies.

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Appendix H

Survey

This is a verbatim output of the pre-notification, the cover letter, the revised questionnaire and the tracking spread sheet.

Pre-NotificationThe pre-notification was done either by a telephone call or by sending an email [Figure H.1]. The telephone call tried to communicate the same information as the pre-notification email.

Subject: Pre-Notification of Questionnaire

To [company],

Within the next few days you will be receiving a request to complete a brief email survey. As a Master’s student, I am do-ing my Master of Science Project about catalogue production. I am interested in learning how catalogue production is done and how it can be automated.

I would greatly appreciate it if you would take some time to complete the survey when it arrives. Your knowledge about catalogue production can prove very valuable to my research.

Thank you,

Karl-Johan GrahnRoyal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden

Figure H.1 Pre-notification email

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Cover Letter and QuestionnaireThe following cover letter and questionnaire were sent as a single email to the respondents:

Dear Sir or Madam,

Would you take a few moments at your convenience and complete this survey about your company’s catalogue produc-tion? This survey is part of my Master of Science Project at the Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, which is car-ried out in Japan. The survey consists of 17 questions, and should take about 15 minutes to complete.

You will get a digital copy of the report when the research is finished.

Please email the survey back to me ([email protected]). With most email readers, you can respond to the survey by typing in your responses where indicated.

If your email viewer does not allow this, you may print the survey and mail your responses to my address: Karl-Johan Grahn, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Omiya Campus 307 Fukasaku, Minuma-ku, Saitama-shi, Saitama 337-8570 Japan

I will be happy to answer any questions you may have about this study. Please email me at [email protected], call me at (0081) 048 687 5167 or fax me at (0081) 048 687 5198.

These are the conditions and guarantees I can offer:1. You will remain anonymous and non-traceable in the report. Upon receipt of the answered questionnaire, I will delete your name, save it as an anonymous copy, and delete your email. Use of company information will be restricted to the answers given in the questionnaire.2. All information will be treated with confidentiality. Answers from each question will be presented in aggregate. During aggregation, I am the only one who knows the origin of each questionnaire.3. Participation in this survey is voluntary and you may refuse to participate or withdraw from participation at any time.4. The purpose of the project is to investigate how cata-logue production can be automated. Hopefully the results will be of use to you and your company.

Please return this survey by Friday, March 3.

Thank you for your co-operation. It is greatly appreciated.

INSTRUCTIONSAnswer the questions by typing your answer in the box fol-lowing each question. For example: [This answer is written in the box]. Please have a look at all questions before beginning. If you are unable to answer a question, or do not want to answer it, you may skip to the next question.

QUESTIONNAIRE---------Section 1---------This first section contains questions about your company.

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The information will be used in aggregate to understand the composition of catalogue producers.

1.1 In which country is your catalogue production located?[]

1.2 How would your company classify itself? (Place an X in the appropriate box)[] Catalogue producer[] Printing company[] In-house agency[] Advertising agency[] Other (specify in the box)

1.3 What is the number of employees at the whole company?[]

1.4 What is the number of employees working mainly with catalogue production?[]

1.5 How many different kinds of catalogues are produced? (Write a number in the box)[]

1.6 What types of catalogues are produced?[]

---------Section 2---------This second section contains questions about automated catalogue production.

2.1 Suppose a catalogue can be produced automatically. What are the properties of the catalogue that can be automated?[]

2.2 Suppose a catalogue is difficult to be automated. What are the properties of the catalogue that is difficult to automate?[]

2.3 What type of layout do readers of the catalogue prefer? (Place an X, or write a comment, in the appropriate box)[] Random layout[] Structured (uniform, arranged) layout[] Both structured and random layout[] Other (specify in the box)

2.4 What work should not be automated?[]

2.5 What is the biggest problem when producing catalogues?[]

2.6 Is there any measurement if a catalogue layout is suc-cessful or not?[]

2.7 Are standards like XML or SGML used in the production? If yes, how are they used? If no, are they planned to be used?[]

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---------Section 3---------This third and last section contains questions specific to your catalogue production.

Think of a typical catalogue produced at your company.3.1 How often is the catalogue printed with new informa-tion?[]

3.2 If the catalogue is produced on behalf of retailers, how many retailers publish information in the catalogue?[]

3.3 In how many versions is the catalogue created?[]

The aim of the next question is to understand how much time is spent on each operation when producing a catalogue. The proposition is that each operation takes place in the order described. If the order is different, please rearrange the order of the operations. If any operation is missing, please add it in the appropriate place.

3.4 How long time, on average, is spent on the following (write the number of days or hours in the box):- Preparing the production to get a basis for communicating your offer []- Input of data from retailer []- Correction of input []- Creation of layout, design work []- Corrections of proof []- Printing the catalogue []- Distributing the catalogue []

Thank you for completing this survey! Please check that no answer has been accidentally missed out. Please return this survey by Friday, March 3.

Thank you once again for your participation and co-operation!

Karl-Johan [email protected]

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Tracking Spread SheetsSpreadsheets were used to keep track of dates for sending and receiving the pre-noti-fication, the questionnaire and reminders [Table H.1; Table H.2].

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TRITA-CSC-E 2006:063 ISRN-KTH/CSC/E--06/063--SE

ISSN-1653-5715

www.kth.se