Dramatically speeds up the end-to-end process
The system is particularly suited to those product groups which are fast moving and require frequent catalogue refreshes. It can use up-to-the-minute application information from XChecker as well as the latest available part details, dimensions, images and features. It is designed to incorporate covers, marketing pages and section headers as well as data pages to pre-defined branding standards. Finally it produces low-res and print-ready PDF files perfectly adjusted for the specified print destination.
A comprehensive program that extracts relevant data from XChecker and builds all the rules necessary to enable preparation of the data in such a way that the Catalogue Creator can render the content correctly onto a formatted applications page. The objectives of the preparation include to minimise data rows where multiple records have the same or similar detail. This entails compressing together models, engines and years into pre-determined groups that will make sense to the reader. The result allows page space to be vastly reduced, leading to more convenient reading and handling plus significant print cost savings. Content is automatically updated each night or on request.
Excel files can be programmed to include optimising and compression as is required for the print catalogue. Inconsistent data content will easily be identified in such files and can be addressed within the XChecker environment. Since the XLS output is effectively a structured, XLS catalogue, the files are also suitable for sending to customers who use Excel or Access source files for their own internal purposes.
Using signed-off new designs or historical Quark/InDesign files that have already been created, this part of the project is to turn the resources into ASP.NET applications pages that will automatically render the provided data and images onto them, including catering for the known variations and layout characteristics of the individual dataset.
Effectively incorporating two systems in one, the ability to create hi-res catalogue files to deliver to printers will be complimented by a lo-res production facility ideal for being made available to customers.
Catalogue Creator is available in multiple languages, and has the ability to provide more precise targeting at no extra production cost if specific region versions are required.