Process-oriented publishing

DocScape is a data-based publishing software tool which combines a variety of different data sources (databases, files, …) in one document, layouting and formatting them 100% automatically and rule-based, ready for pre-press or the Web.

This tool features a number of innovative and unique technologies which redefine terms such as data-based publishing, design automaton and process-oriented publishing. DocScape’s basic technological characteristics are described in detail and illustrated with examples on the following pages.

Generating documents 100% automatically with DocScape implies more than merely creating page contents in a largely schematic, template-based approach - the layout process in all its complexity is mapped by design rules, which allow the system to perform a media designer’s job rule-based and 100% automatically, guaranteeing full CD compliance, irrespective of whether it is used for the previously cost-intensive design of a main catalog, a personalized offer for a premium customer, or the output module of an inventory control system. In addition, sophisticated design jobs such as layout optimization, positioning of optional contents (eye-catchers), symmetry optimization, utilization planning and an optimized use of the available space will be performed with unvarying quality on each page.

DocScape does not dictate a specific data administration or data structuring system. The server application may be integrated into any IT infrastructure via standard interfaces or direct database access. A standardized XML dataset format is generated during data access. Essential functions such as data compression and aggregation are also performed rule-based and automatically during the data conversion process. Having generated the data, the PDF document is generated 100% automatically just in time by the publishing component. DocScape’s high generating speed allows the operator to create extensive documents for pre-press or take individual document versions from the Web, including on-the-fly generation, in a few seconds.

The DocScape system in all its complexity is fully XML-based. Not only are the original data processed as structured XML dataset files, but the data structure itself is also mapped in an XML formula, including all structuring, aggregation and compression rules. In addition, the design rules are specified in a layout mark-up language which was developed specifically for the uncomplicated and modular mapping of design processes. 

DocScape is a proprietary product developed by QuinScape GmbH and operates independent of third-party licenses. The publishing process and the generation and administration of design rules do not require specific client applications. The design rule mark-up language possesses a sufficiently wide range of features to allow the realization of all components of the layout regulations - from text formatting and image integration through generating and optimizing layouts to the data-based generation of diagrams and tables - exclusively via the design regulations, without having to refer to black box functions or proprietary format templates.

DocScape is based on a strict separation of content and layout: data contents are processed structurally according to their relevance within the product data structure, requiring no “ pre-formatting” of tables or page structures within the input data. Any formatting or publication-oriented structuring is specified by the design rules and may be optimized rule-based, depending on the space available and other design considerations.

This makes DocScape an ideal publishing tool for media-independent data management and cross media publishing systems. 

DocScape is a publishing server which runs on all popular hardware and operating system environments. Once the server has been installed, data access and publishing functions may be accessed simultaneously as frequently as required, be it for the productive generating of individualized documents or generating preview presentations for integration into a data administration component. 

All automatic publishing functions are distributed, optionally accessible without additional client software, and may be integrated into any data-based process, controlled by role-based workflows in which approval, versioning and archiving are performed automatically, as naturally as in other data-based workflows. This is the principle of process-oriented publishing.

The server may be accessed directly from the database client or the Intranet, Extranet or Internet, making DocScape an ideal tool for the integration into web-based, distributed processing and publishing processes, be it

Every popular DTP system features “automation” functions; this usually implies filling basically pre-formatted pages with contents, which are generated by mapping frames which are predefined in templates with data contents, followed by time-consuming manual processing which becomes more cost-intensive the more complex the design of the final product is.
DocScape goes beyond this formula-based “bulk letter function”, performing design jobs of any complexity rule-based and 100% automatically.
By reverse, the content elements for automatic page design which are familiar from DTP systems are all available without limitation as part of DocScape:

• Colored fields, lines
  • Color gradient
  • Spot colors
  • Free-form surfaces
• Image integration
  • Integration in original size
  • Image scaling/bleed
  • Positioning of cropped images, motif markings via image paths
  • Shadow generation
  • Hotspots for links, picture in picture, alignment by symmetry levels
• Text formatting
  • Typographically perfect text layout
  • Paragraph optimization
  • Microtypography (ligatures, punctuation marks, mathematical setting), macrotyphograpy (text flow, area composition, outline setting)
  • Automatic hyphenation for all European languages, dynamic switching of text direction, support of all Asian and African fonts
  • Full Unicode support
  • Rule-based optimization of column and page breaks
  • Text flow with automatic designation of flow paths, if required over several pages
• Tables
  • Pre-defined column width
  • Adjustment of column width to contents
  • Colspan
  • Rowspan
  • Color depositing
  • Dynamic table construction
  • Rule-based page/column breaks
  • Dynamic repeated lines
  • Synchronous double-spread tables
  • Asynchronous integration of continuous text