Why InDesign?

PatternStream takes advantage of Adobe InDesign and InDesign Server superior formatting and publishing capabilities:
  • Extensive integration
  • Creative effects and controls
  • Reliable prepress and printing
  • Productivity enhancements
  • XHTML export
  • Professional typographical controls
  • Full-featured tables
  • Long-document support
  • Smart text handling
  • Scripting and extensibility
  • Multiple output filters and converters (PostScript, PDF, HTML, XML, and word processing applications)
  • Multiple input filters and converters
  • Automatic table of contents and indices
  • Unicode support
  • Excellent application programming interface (API)

To use PatternStream, an InDesign template or a series of templates are created before and/or while creating a project’s PatternStream configuration file. This file is named the pattern set template or PSET file. If the product to be published is in the form of a book, several templates may be designed to represent sections of the book as required.

The reason the InDesign template is needed when setting up PatternStream is because of PatternStream’s tight integration with the InDesign publishing engine. InDesign provides the best creative document publishing application to drive the publishing and output process. PatternStream uses the formatting information contained in the InDesign template directly to control the information it collects. All of the InDesign template format attributes are available in  to PatternStream assign to pages, headers and footers, paragraphs, characters, tables, markers, hyperlinks, and numerous other document components.

InDesign use and template design expertise is required to use PatternStream. This includes the design of master pages, paragraph and character tag catalogs, table catalogs, and establishing other InDesign document publishing attributes. 

Once the InDesign template development is started or complete, the PatternStream PSET file can be set up using the GUI. The InDesign template can be modified as the PSET file is developed in an iterative process. This provides the ability to publish a page or two and view, modify, or make necessary corrections “on-the- fly” — permitting rapid prototyping, development, and publishing of database derived products.