Automated typesetting

InDesign is the undisputed program which enables you to create sophisticated layouts. With our open source framework transpect you can automatically generate a IDML make-up from XML. Further optimization can be achieved with InDesign scripts to automate certain InDesign actions such as positioning text frames, creating endnotes, anchoring images etc.

However, InDesign can only be automated to a limited extent. The execution of scripts takes time and since InDesign servers can only use one CPU, they are not faster than an InDesign installed on a regular desktop.

With nDesign, many tasks have to be performed manually. This makes typesetting and author corrections error-prone, tedious and expensive. Therefore, InDesign is sometimes too expensive for certain products.

A fully automated typesetting via transpect provides a reasonable alternative here: With a snap of your fingers, transpect generates a proof or a print-ready PDF from structured data. But to make it that easy, there is some preparation needed.

First of all, the requirements must be precisely specified. The text structure has to be defined from the first to the last page and from macro to micro level: This includes all elements from the half-title to the endnotes, from the heading to the footnote. Then the design needs to be specified, i.e. elements such as page layout, fonts and text styles. Thanks to this preliminary work, Document templates, converters, test routines and layout templates can be programmed based on these specification.