Automation projects

As well as supporting users of the PDF to InDesign converter app, I build page layout automation routines, making use of the expertise acquired in building the PDF to InDesign converter, plus other previous layout automation projects.

In essence, this can be explained as sophisticated versions of InDesign's Data Merge, or Word's Mail Merge. When you use InDesign's Data Merge you can replace text content and image files to automatically generate new pages. I do the same, but the scope of the objects that can be generated, and the differences between the pages can be much greater.

• Items can be styled with different fonts and colors, that are dependent on the text content - for example a VIP invite might be styled differently to regular invite.
• Text blocks with multiple paragraphs containing lists and other text formats can be individually styled.
• Text can be automatically resized to fit a given space, either by choosing the most appropriate style from a provided set, or calculating an exact font size fit.
• Vector shapes can be resized to reflect data values, or to fit text content, enabling automatic generation of charts and infographics.
• Object position can be defined in the input data, for example so a text or image sits at a different place on a map on each page.
• Tables can be generated automatically from input data, and resized to fit given areas.
• And much more...

As a general rule, if you're able to manually create the layout in InDesign, then I'm usually able to automate the generation of similar pages from data.

Not only can automation save time, so freeing up designers to do actual designing, but it guarantees consistency across all versions. Please get in touch if you'd like to learn more.