Shadowing the XML: Left, InDesign 2.0 has extensive eXtensible Markup Language tools inherent in the application. Below, the new transparency functions of InDesign 2.0 are best illustrated by the ability to create drop shadows on type that is fully editable.

Adobe turns to suppliers to put
InDesign in front of publishers

When Adobe InDesign made its debut in 1999, pundits called it the "Quark killer." It was proclaimed that the InDesign page layout application would revolutionize the publishing industry and wipe Quark XPress -- the longtime industry leader -- off the map.

That has hardly been the case.

Although Adobe Systems Inc. of San Jose never used the term "Quark killer," the company does now openly call InDesign "the future of professional publishing," despite the fact it still hasn't overtaken XPress in the industry. Last month, the Windows version of XPress was ranked at No. 679 by Amazon.com in all software sales from the web site, but the Windows version of InDesign was ranked No. 2910.

So Adobe has decided to focus InDesign on the professional publishing market, having cut deals with a large swath of the systems suppliers who serve newspapers and magazines.

Despite the reluctance of the marketplace to move toward InDesign, the most recognizable benefit in using the application, which is currently at version 1.5.2, is that it is a seamless component in the Adobe product family.

Almost everyone uses Adobe Photoshop for handling images and many use Adobe Illustrator for vector graphics. Almost everybody is using Adobe fonts. And who doesn't use Adobe Acrobat? So, Adobe argues, why not take advantage of being able to easily work on, import and export files from those applications within a layout application?

Adobe announced the release of InDesign 2.0 at Seybold San Francisco in September, and said it expects to ship 2.0 sometime in first three months of next year (see The Cole Papers, October 2001).

Last month, the company also announced the second-quarter 2002 release of Adobe InCopy 2.0, the story-editing application that works in conjunction with InDesign. The latest features include an interactive spellcheck, an improved user interface and support for eXtensible Markup Language (XML).

The company said in a press release that it consulted with "systems integrators and customers" about new features for InCopy. It quotes Ralph Brown, systems editor at the Boston Globe, as saying, "Adobe did a great job of listening to our specific needs -- such as separate galley and page views -- and turning them into InCopy features."

InCopy is resold only through system integration firms.

At the same time as the Seybold announcement of InDesign 2.0, Adobe also announced the release and integration of the eXtensible Metadata Platform (XMP) for content management. XMP is in Acrobat 5.0 now, and will be in all future Adobe product releases.

XMP basically allows metadata to be included in all files and components of files. This type of labeling is key to improved content management. XMP allows for a finer granularity of storing metadata than had been previously available.

XMP handles electronic labeling on each component, not just a page. That means that even if you have 20 components on an InDesign page -- say, 10 stories, five photos and five ads -- each component will bring with it its own metadata.

"Adobe is trying to build a means for metadata exchange," said Gray Knowlton, product marketing manager at Adobe. "It allows you to create content and assets that are more valuable."

The inclusion of XMP in the release of InDesign 2.0 is just one of 800 new features.

That's right: 800.

Ease of use
"This is a new era of network publishing," said Michael Wallen, Adobe product marketing manager. "It allows people to publish to any device."

By device, Wallen means that from InDesign you can publish to the Web, print, PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) or PDF (Portable Document Format).

The reasoning behind jamming so many features into InDesign is for user ease of use. "We wanted common user interfaces and tools," Wallen said. "We wanted to cut down on the number of assets users have to use everyday."

One of the biggest attention-getters in the new InDesign is the transparency feature.

"With transparency support you can change opacities," said Wallen. "People have been using Photoshop for this capability. InDesign 2.0 brings this capability right into InDesign."

Designers can now apply feathering and drop shadows, and work with blending modes just as in Photoshop. The transparency feature allows designers to stay in InDesign to enrich graphic elements instead of returning to Photoshop or Illustrator.

InDesign comes fully scriptable in both the Windows version and the Macintosh version. Users can build macros to speed up routine tasks without having to know how to write code.

Also, the newest version of InDesign will run on Mac OS X. "It's fully Carbonized to take advantage of the new OS from Macintosh," Wallen said.

One boon to newspapers is the ability to use tables in InDesign 2.0. While you could make tables in 1.5, 2.0 turns table construction into a semi-pleasurable experience. With 2.0, users can "turn tab-delimited text from any source, including Microsoft Word, Excel, and many databases, into an InDesign table in one step."

The new table creation tools allow users to add high-end typographical elements to tables. Table-building can also be scripted to help in creating agate pages and TV schedules. Along with scripting, the tables are supported by XML.

"You can also flow a table from page to page," said Wallen.

XML plays a major role in InDesign. It provides for tagging and media-neutral content. Users can also take advantage of scalable vector graphics that further allow for cross-platform use and repurposing.

In addition, 2.0 provides more fully developed printing and color controls which are driver independent, and include print setting summaries and preflighting. There's also the ability for spot-color mapping through the Ink Manager. InDesign can be used "like a box of Crayola Crayons," Wallen said.

"One of the hallmarks is that we are bringing back the art of typography," he said. "InDesign is fully cross-platform; the only missing part was the type. That's where OpenType comes in" (see following story).

As opposed to the current version's multiline composer, which only looks a few lines ahead as it is handling hyphenation and justification, there is now a paragraph composer with hyphenation control, and even a hyphenation penalty slider to give the user more control over how text looks on a page.

The paragraph composer examines paragraphs, rather than multiple lines, allowing better line breaks. Other typographical features include optical margin alignment controls, optical kerning controls and a glyph palette for inserting special characters.

According to Adobe press materials, the speed of InDesign has also been improved. Placing text will be 17 times faster than before, recomposing will be three times faster and saving documents will be 16 times faster. The material doesn't specify what type of PC the tests were benchmarked on, however.

What Adobe InDesign doesn't offer in 2.0 is a story editor or the ability to show font faces in the font menu.

The big oohs and aahs of InDesign have been such things as multiple undos, better handling of PDFs and compatibility with other Adobe products. Now with 2.0, Adobe focuses on even more cross-platform capabilities and superior asset management through its XMP standard.

While it is not yet an industry standard, it is built on World-Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards. Adobe also offers it as an OpenSource platform for anyone to develop on.

XMP allows for consistent asset management. Wallen said that with XMP, users can track components more easily and when using PDFs with InDesign through import or export, the native information is preserved.

"If it is set up right for preflight, you won't have to open the document before preflighting," Knowlton said. "It also makes it easier to repurpose your assets."

Traditional suppliers embrace InDesign
"XMP has some potential," said Per Kejlstrup, vice president for product management at CCI Europe, the Danish publishing systems supplier. "Before it becomes a standard, however, a lot more people need to use the product."

A number of traditional newspaper publishing systems suppliers marketing in North America have all embraced InDesign in their editorial systems in some way, shape or form. They include Advanced Technical Solutions of Wilmington, Mass.; CCI Europe, which has U.S. offices in Kennesaw, Ga.; Digital Technology International (DTI) of Springville, Utah; Harris Publishing Systems Corp. of Melbourne, Fla., and its Baseview Products Inc. division based in Ann Arbor, Mich.; Managing Editor Inc. of Jenkintown, Pa.; Media Command Inc. (the former Geac) of Tampa, Fla., and Net-Linx Publishing Solutions of Ann Arbor and Sacramento.

CCI is integrating InDesign into two of its products and will be doing so with version 2.0. Harris installed InDesign last year at the San Francisco Examiner. Managing Editor has recently released the TruEdit suite of products based on InCopy and InDesign (see The Cole Papers, October 2001).

Net-Linx is still in beta testing with InDesign in its new editorial system called Insiight. Advanced Technical Solutions and Media Command offer InDesign as a page layout application option in their existing product lines.

DTI was the first newspaper supplier to integrate InDesign; it moved from its own proprietary page layout application and never went down the Quark path. DTI NewsSpeed Version 5, with InDesign at its core, is one of the more robust editorial systems available.

"We chose it for architectural reasons," DTI Chief Executive Don Oldham said of InDesign. "When it comes to Quark versus InDesign, I want more than just a layout program."

Indeed, InDesign is much more than a layout program, especially with the release of 2.0. DTI uses InDesign for its composition engine.

Oldham is a big fan of InDesign and DTI's product development shows it. "It turns out InDesign is not just a layout program," Oldham said, calling it "a collection of all of Adobe's technologies."

CCI offers CCI Edit for Adobe InCopy and CCI Page Design for Adobe InDesign.

"We already have the integration with Quark," Kejlstrup said. "But with Adobe InDesign we can have tighter integration. Also, there are more handles for us to develop with in InDesign."

DTI has done plenty of developing with InDesign for the same reason.

"We use the multiline hyphenation-and-justification [from InDesign] in our wire service," Oldham said. "That way the exact length of a story is known when it comes into the database."

Oldham also pointed out that Quark has only had two releases in five years. "Adobe is innovating at double the rate of Quark," he said. "That's major upgrades with major releases."

Integration issues
Both CCI and DTI have fully integrated InDesign into their applications. InDesign can be opened right from within CCI's applications, and InDesign is so integral to the DTI product that it's impossible to tell where DTI leaves off and InDesign starts.

"When you need to make a last-minute change, we allow the user to click on the text and change it without going back to InDesign," Oldham said.

Part of the success DTI has had with InDesign is that Adobe has been generous with development help, even before the advent of XMP.

"Adobe delivers to developers a whole slew of products. With InDesign we have true integration," Oldham said. "With Quark you end up in a single-user file system which isn't as open as InDesign."

Oldham also sees promise in Adobe's XMP.

"It's a great thing for us to keep and send the information," he said. "Our idea is to have all the data in our database. Who is big enough than Adobe to make it a standard?"

"Adobe has spent about two and a half years researching and working on XMP," Knowlton said.

XMP stamps an "electronic label" on each component. This allows for "workflow interfaces, database support and application interoperability." XMP attaches a "packet" onto each document. Within the Adobe XMP platform are these elements: