Silicon Designer looks at the metadata in the inDesign file, starting with common elements that are familiar to most InDesign users: layer names, for example, can become the names of tabs or fields for data entry. However, much of the power of Designer is further optimized when at least some document setup is made with an eye to eventual online editing. Silicon Designer can ingest any InDesign document, and deliver an editing experience for that document, even if its creator never intended it for online editing. With InDesign Server, we are able to interrogate an InDesign document and instantly create a web experience based on that document. Silicon Designer is built on top of InDesign Server, which is a critical component of any modern web-to-print solution. Web-enabling InDesign authoring workflows It also includes documentation about setting up InDesign files for editing, and an optional plugin for InDesign that makes setup more efficient. A web services engine that communicates between client and composition engine.A back end composition engine that renders output exactly as seen in the web client.A web-client, with a customizable user interface.
While Adobe InDesign is a significant component of Silicon Designer, the solution assumes InDesign, and adds three modules to it: Silicon Designer is a solution for editing InDesign files online. Enter Silicon Designer: edit InDesign files online! But web-enabling the workflow can make sense in any of these scenarios. The third scenario is what we presented in the webinar, as it is what we see most in the real world.
The designer maintains the InDesign files and implements edits based on a conglomeration of input via emails, phone calls, PDF annotations, etc. Rather, the content is shared: Marketing owns the brand guidelines, Business Owners define the pricing, Legal defines disclaimers, etc. These can come all sorts of ways, but typically the salespeople or others requesting content changes don’t touch the InDesign file themselves.
Considering only this fundamental use case, there are good reasons that Adobe InDesign has evolved into the magnificent application that it is today, and creative geniuses engage this powerful tool to make these important materials on a daily basis, all over the world. Organizations need documents, and the almost universal, lowest-common-denominator requirement is for marketing collateral: business cards, product flyers, postcards, etc. Why do designers and Adobe InDesign exist in the first place? In preparing the webinar, I noticed that Jeff had used the title “How to Share InDesign Files” for his presentation, and I think that’s a great way of looking at it. It meets the challenges of scaling collaborative design, offering ever-greater capabilities with each passing year. The Silicon Designer product, however, doesn’t sit still. Most of the content about the “why” was created by the great Jeff Seal, a few years ago.