Using FM as On-Demand Printing Engine

[jalutz]

I am a long-time Quark user who has a client who wants to print her greeting card designs "on-demand". Quark would be a steep learning curve for the client and I could avoid making individual Quark templates for each design if I can use FM. I've been experimenting with FM as an alternative. I currently use FM 4.1.

There are memory issues using my current approach. The average scan is 8-9mb in size and there are 216 designs involved. Importing each .tiff scann into FM would seem to create a "lumbering elephant".

Is FM 6 capable of putting a "thumbnail" in the container field and referencing the actual scan with a defined path? This is the Quark approach.

The other feature I need is to be able to rotate text on layouts.

Thanks. -- jal

[stardust]

It seems to me you are trying a variable data approach to this project. I don't think that using FM for the layout of these cards is the best way to go about it.

Also, FM isn't crazy about the TIFF format, JPEGs seem to work best.

Quark does offer a software solution for delivering variable data. If you've got the bucks for it, and plan to use variable data for projects other than this, it may be the way to go.

Another alternative you may consider is using Adobe Illustrator 10. It will allow you to link graphical templates to an FM database. You can change graphical elements and text dynamically. This may be a more cost effective route to go, provided you already own Illustrator!

I certainly hope this helps!

[jalutz]

Thanks, Maria, for your comments.

I will be using Quark XPress as a solution. I have set up templates for each of the designs that she will print on demand.

I use FM for 72 dpi eBay scans. It works so well I was tempted to consider using it for the above application. It is not the right tool.-- jal