We are a commercial printing company who has been looking into a web to print solution. We have contacted companies such as Avanti and Power Quotes which offer full systems and a large cost. What I want to be able to do is offer to my clients an oppurtunity to do their own typesetting through their web browser on standardized products such as stationery/business forms/catalogs. They would then be responsible for proof reading and final approval PDF.

I understand that Filemaker 8.5 now has the abilty to produce high res. PDF's which we could then use inturn to impose for printing on sheetfed or web presses.? I have a fair bit of filemaker experience and am looking at a simple solution to start and one which I could build on in the future. Can anyone help?

I wouldn't recommend using FileMaker to generate high-res PDFs. You don't have much control over the PDF settings, and FileMaker isn't very precise when it comes to spacing etc.

I have developed a FileMaker product that does exactly what you need it to do... I offer it as a service to a variety of clients for all sorts of different uses. The typesetting is automated by FileMaker, but all takes place in QuarkXPress or InDesign and the end users then see a proof PDF and can approve it, reload the files, make changes or even request a download of the Quark files.

I have two businesses, one is typesetting and the other is "FileMaking", and this bridges the gap very nicely between the two.

I have clients using the system in live production every day, and it works beautifully :-)

Send me an email, or give me a call, and we'll talk some more.

Yours

James