Database publishing

Common examples are mail order catalogues, direct marketing, report generation, price lists and telephone directories.

The database content can be in the form of text and pictures but can also contain metadata related to formatting and special rules that may apply to the document generation process.

Database publishing can be incorporated into larger workflows as a component, where documents are created, approved, revised and released.

The basic idea is using database contents like article and price information to fill out pre-formatted template documents.

The main layout applications for this workflow are: Datalogics Pager, Adobe FrameMaker / InDesign, QuarkXPress, Xyvision, Arbortext Advanced Print Publisher (formerly 3B2) and priint:suite.

BMUG Disk Catalog 1989 , the first known example of direct database-to-negative publishing. Programmer Greg Dow and prepress expert Bill Woodcock published the annual catalog of BMUG's software archive using Nashoba FileMaker output display templates on Macintosh computers to image direct to film from which the plates were burned, on a Linotronic 300 imagesetter. Frontispieces were made in Adobe Illustrator 88 and interleaved in plate compositing. It was set in Adobe Bookman , and printed in grayscale at a 60-line screen for an intentionally minimalist effect.