True west: Managing Editor Inc.'s TruEdit plug-in for Adobe InDesign and Adobe InCopy provides a relatively inexpensive workflow environment for small publishers. Left, TruEdit exports a layout to InCopy so that copy can be written to fit. Middle, TruEdit links the text in InCopy to the layout. Right, TruEdit brings the text back from InCopy and links it into the InDesign layout.

Tools to ease Web publishing
and using PDFs are unveiled

SAN FRANCISCO -- DAM, DAM, DAM, DAM, DAM ... I've grown accustomed to that database.

Maybe it's better to have less My Fair Lady and more of Charles Dickens, with his tired, tried-and-true cliché, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

Such was the nature of Seybold San Francisco 2001.

On the trade show floor, more than one supplier referred to this as the Apple/Adobe Expo.

Because of circumstances way beyond the control of Seybold officials, what had been touted as "the largest conference and educational program the organization has ever produced" became more of an affirmation that companies would continue business as usual despite the world-shaking events of Sept. 11.

The two halls of Moscone Center were not nearly as full of exhibitors as in previous years, but what was on display was still in the best tradition of Seybolds past. It was a different, less crowded trade show that was focused on the business of electronic publishing and the new lingo of the 21st century.

Although Seybold could have been canceled, it wasn't, and while attendance wasn't what was expected prior to the events of Sept. 11, the show did go on, demonstrating the maturity of both electronic publishing and the show itself.

We all have grown accustomed to Seybold in September.

Lizard-like
Not just a database, but digital asset management (DAM). Not just media content, but rich media content (text, sounds, photos and graphics). Not just data, but metadata.

Which brings me to the first, and potentially one of the most important new technologies debuting at Seybold SF, Quark Active Publishing Server from Quark Inc. of Denver.

Take the core text manipulation engine from Quark XPress 5.0 and graft on a web server to make Internet-enabled templates for content. Then, right within Netscape or Explorer, words can be written into the templates, and the user can see, right in the browser, precisely how that text will look on the finished page layout.

I was reminded of a similar product for user-generated newspaper ads, AdLizard from Australia (see The Cole Papers, July 2000). Just call Quark Active Publishing Server the AdLizard for the rest of us.

With this new Quark offering, filing on deadline to the exact size of the laid-out story just got a whole lot more precise -- with no word processing application of any kind needed, just the ubiquitous web browser, which is free. No font problems, no template versions, no software. The skills of a rewrite person are becoming less relevant when writers have the tools to be their own editors as well.

The first release of Active Publishing Server will be linked to the release of Quark 5.0. There is no definite date for the release of either, but expect them soon.

PDF workflow tools
The Portable Document Format (PDF) seems to be maturing as a way to deliver entire publications for printing far from the place of production. Most of the software on display was touted as improving or automating the process of creating PDFs from documents, or checking the created documents for errors before sending them off to the printers.

Such software has been evolving for years. CreoScitex of Bedford, Mass., was showing Synapse and Synapse Pro, a suite of tools that supplements Quark XPress and Adobe Acrobat Distiller from Adobe Systems Inc. of San Jose. They allow the inspection of composite PDF files for trapping and color problems, and with the built-in Enfocus PitStop Professional, they permit the actual editing of PDF documents at any stage of the workflow.

CantoSoftware Inc. of San Francisco, which seems to be determined to let the assets in its databases be repurposed with the greatest of ease, was pushing an on-the-fly processor to convert stored assets in a Canto database into PDF files as needed. 2PDF AssetProcessor could keep originals in their native formats of Quark, InDesign, Word or PowerPoint.

This $995 addition to the Cumulus database needs Acrobat Distiller (Mac or PC) to be available, as well as the creating application of the asset.

CaslonSoft of Højbjerg, Denmark, lets users design a PDF workflow using existing software to make a hot folder-based automatic or semi-automatic path in CaslonFlow.

The interesting feature of this program is that there is no real database, other than the Job Definition Format (JDF) tickets associated with each separate job. The various modules in CaslonFlow all exchange information via tags written in the eXtensible Markup Language (XML). Thus, CaslonFlow works with PostScript as well as PDF and other documents containing pictures and text.

But be warned, the software requires the use of the dreaded dongle. The workflows can be monitored remotely by using a web browser, however.

The two top PDF preflight companies, both based in California, were also in evidence. Markzware of Santa Ana and Enfocus Software Inc. of San Mateo both had new products, Markzware's Flightcheck Vision and Enfocus' Instant PDF.

Flightcheck Vision checks virtually any element in a PDF job, but lets the user choose exactly what information will be displayed. Instant PDF is an application that drives Acrobat Distiller to create PDFs quickly from within a host of design applications, and Enfocus will create, preflight, auto-correct (based on user preferences) and then Certify (that's the Enfocus brand of certification) the PDF.

One difference: Flightcheck Vision runs only on a Mac.

And finally, one very cool plug-in for Acrobat from Idelix Software of Vancouver, British Columbia. This software, PliablePaper, creates a little magnifying lens in a PDF document that allows readers to slide the lens up and down the page ... just like the analog magnifying lens that Grandpa used to have to help him read maps.

One or more lenses can be included in a PDF, but that's up to individual developers. It does save a lot of navigation headaches, particularly in map documents.

Seybold's greatest hits