Managing Complex Print Deliverables with Arbortext 5.4Gareth OakesGPSL (Global Publishing Solutions Ltd)

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Introduction

• Gareth Oakes (goakes@gpslsolutions.com)

• My experience:

– Griffith University

– Advent/3B2

– Arbortext

– PTC

– GPSL

• GPSL: we solve complex publishing problems

The Conversation: Managing Complex Print Deliverables with Arbortext 5.4

• It’s 2010, and we’re still printing on dead tree?

• Tell me about modern enterprise publishing systems

• What publishing features are in Arbortext 5.4 then?

• What’s this APP software all about?

• How can we manage our complex print deliverables with PTC software?

It’s 2010, and we’re stillprinting on dead tree?

Alphabets and paper, leading to adoption of moveable type

Johannes Gutenberg

circa 1447

Logographs on clay tablets and papyrus

Egypt & Mesopotamia

~4000BC

WWW and HTML

Tim Berners-Lee

August 6, 1991

PDF

Adobe

circa 1993

Pictures on cave walls

~30000BC

What next?What next?

Trends

• There has been a massive, accelerating shift over the last 10-15 years towards electronic media

• However it’s not necessarily a shift from one format to another, it’s a diversification

• We are discovering that certain classes of content are better suited to other media types than others, eg.

– RSS feeds: news articles

– Epub format: books (growing fast!)

– Web: shopping, social communications, technical forums, etc.

Disadvantages of Print

• Not searchable

• Bulky

• Easy to mass produce, but costly to distribute

• Difficult to duplicate

• Difficult to keep information updated

• Expensive to compose large, complex documents with high quality

Advantages of Print

• No electronics =no hardware, no batteries,no interference, always “on”

• Paper is cheap

• Fast and simple to scan through a large bulk of content

• Easier to read than electronic screens

• Annotatable

• Large display, high resolution, full colour

• Well suited to certain classes of content, and conveys a message of professionalism and formality

Printed materials are still widely used

• Fiction and non-fiction books

• Operation, service and reference manuals

• Catalogues, brochures and flyers

• Scientific journals and technical articles

• Parliamentary records and legislation

• Taxation/legal reference material

• ... government and enterprise publishers in particular face strong market demand for printed materials

Tell me about modern enterprisepublishing systems

• Content stored in a Content Management System, usually as fragments of related information

• Best format for structured content is XML

– Separation of content from style

– Supports information fragments

– Multilingual, and supportive of translation management

• Actual content may be authored, or driven by a database

• Multi-channel delivery

Tell me about modern enterprisepublishing systems

• Printed outputs are usually the toughest ones, unless compromises can be made

• Desktop operators are expensive

• Even outsourced composition vendors are not as cheap as they used to be...

• Software tools and automated systems help solve the modern enterprise publishing problem:“we need to deliver more content, to more consumers, in more formats, faster and cheaper than ever before”

What publishing features are inArbortext 5.4 then?

• Arbortext Publishing Engine is the traditional flagship publishing product in the Arbortext range

• Java, scripting and web services APIs

• Capable of:

– Working natively with complex XML content, through validation, scripting and transformations

– Publishing XML content to many output types

– Importing unstructured formats (MS Word, PDF, etc.)

– Exporting unstructured formats (eg. RTF)

What publishing features are inArbortext 5.4 then?

• The Arbortext 5.4 release brings the following major publishing enhancements:

– Composition request queue (APE)

– Subprocess pools can have unique custom environments (APE)

– Web publishing enhancements (new look’n’feel too)

– Huge improvements to Styler UI

– APP integration

APP integration details

• APP ships as a DLL, within its own “app” folder in the Arbortext install path

• APP can be driven by Styler stylesheet or native APP .3f templates (installed in doctype folder)

• Works for print preview, compose to PDF, print composed

• APP “edited source” available in Styler

• APP “associated template” available in Styler, for customisations which are too complex for edited source

• APP native templates and libraries can be installed...

What’s this APP softwareall about?

• Started life as a Desktop Publishing Tool

• Also runs in server mode, automated via scripting APIs

• Native XML/SGML

• Provides advanced print publishing capabilities – many more typographic and composition controls

• Can use APP Desktop to manipulate composed pages before printing or publishing to PDF, PostScript, etc.

What’s this APP software all about?

• APP engine ships with APE and can be used instead of the traditional FOSI/TeX or XSL-FO composition paths

• Stylesheet language is proprietary to APP(not based on FOSI or XSL-FO)

• Native APP templates can be complex to write, but APP can now be driven by Arbortext Styler

Developing for APP

• Arbortext Styler great for building basic stylesheets

– GUI driven

– Stylesheets can be extended via “edited source”

• APP Desktop best suited for building complex templates

– Development method akin to programming

– Ultimate flexibility

Styler dialog box

Main menus

Action buttons

Resource groups

List of resources

Output type

Property groups

Properties editor

What is APP good for?

• Once you reach the limits of InDesign

– Need to lower production costs

– Need consistency of output

– Need native XML/SGML support

– Automatically assemble and build complex print products (server and/or desktop)

What is APP good for?

• Once you reach the limits of FOSI, TeX and XSL-FO...

– Complex tables and custom tables

– Complex footnotes/sidenotes

– Automating complex float rules

– Content within arbitrary rotations (eg. at a 37º angle)

– Workflows that require manual adjustments to pages

– Composition rules which are driven by the format environment rather than the markup (eg. force a pagebreak if element starts > 40pc down a page)

How can we manage our complex print deliverables with PTC software?

PTC Arbortext technology platform is underpinned by XML

The PTC Dynamic Publishing System is formed of an integrated set of customizable components:

• Arbortext Content Manager – XML content management

• Arbortext Editor – XML authoring

• Arbortext Styler – XML stylesheets

• Arbortext Publishing Engine – XML rendering

• Arbortext APP Desktop – composition touchup or automated, native XML, desktop publishing

Developing for APP

• The legacy typesetting language:

<?tpfmt 3><?th 10pt><?tlb 12pt>

<?show +0?x(10)$^x(10)>

• Javascript:

p.textAlign = fParagraph.ALIGN_CENTER;

p.leading = '12pt';

s.Height = '10pt';

if(count > 0) f.write(count);

Demonstration

• Complex print samples

• Arbortext 5.4 – new UI elements

• Arbortext 5.4 – how it all works, how to setup for APP

• APP install folder, quick rundown including *.3sp files

• Styler sample that works via APP

• APP-specific tweaks in a stylesheet

• APP Desktop, feel the power

THE END

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