Using Filemaker with Adobe Illustrator for Book Project

[drongomala]

Hi All,

I have a database of musical works contained inside a Filemaker Pro database - it's a mixture of images and text.

I'd like to make a book with the content and was hoping to use a template within Adobe illustrator and pull the data in dynamically from Filemaker.

Is Illustrator the right tool for this? I can't find many links or articles.

Any advice at all on using Filemaker to generate book content much appreciated.

Thanks

Antknee

[MarkWalsh]

If you're creating a multiple page book, you'd be better off using InDesign instead of Illustrator. Other than that, you would need to give more information about your requirements to recommend a workflow.

[drongomala]

Hi Mark,

Many thanks for answering. Since the post I've been looking around a bit more and you are right InDesign would be a better tool.

Ultimately I want to have a database that is the master for

a) a book - A4 size

b) an online application and an iphone app

c) Sections of the Indesign book to be available on the web

If I render from the database to generate the book pages in InDesign rather than read dynamically from the database I'll probably be doomed trying to keep everything synced up.

The database has the following tables:

- music piece overview

- related imagery for the pieces

- related stories for the pieces

- chord tab, notation for the pieces

- melodic phrases for the pieces

I would like to be able to create a section of the book (in InDesign) to take data from this table and fit it into a template and for the template page to be replicated as many times as there are music pieces.

Some of my questions are:

- Can I read the Filemaker database at runtime rather than doing an export

- Can InDesign be set up to read from multiple tables assuming they are all keyed on the same primary ID (i.e. the piece name)

- Can I also grab the graphics from the database?

- Do I need Indesign Server or Filemaker server?

- If I modify the database can I hit 'resync' in Indesign?

- Are there any examples of how to to this? I'm computer and app savvy but if needed I would hire someone for a day to set the whole thing up OR go to a training course covering

Any other advice appreciated.

I can't see how to move this thread to InDesign so if a mod reads this then I'd be happy for it to be moved!

Thanks

antKnee

[MarkWalsh]

Here's some good info to get you started: http://aaupwiki.princeton.edu/index.php/FileMaker-to-InDesign_Tips

[JETalmage]

Antknee,

Please describe more fully the nature of the grapics you intend to use. (Color mode, color depth. How color-critical are the images?)

Also, how you intend this book to be printed/published? (Mass produced in large quantities on a web offset press? On-demand printed in short runs in an as-needed basis? Short run on digital press?)

Have you fully explored the possibility of simply publishing from FileMaker alone? Unless dead-accurate color is an absolute necessity, with digital presses and on-demand printing services, it is entirely feasible to use FMP to:

• Author the content, maintain and work with the database.
• Create a standalone runtime application with full database functionality.
• Publish to web using FileMaker Server's IWP or PHP Assistant.
• Script exporting to print-ready PDFs, based on Layouts set up specifically for the format of the printed book.

I routinely publish illustrated parts catalogs of 600-1000 pages in length, directly from PDFs exported from FileMaker Pro. In my case, the images are grayscale or 1-bit PNGs, but assuming RGB is acceptable in your print workflow, they could just as easily be color. Working this way, the print versions are always at parity with the database; I can export new print files anytime I want.

Regarding AI or InD, though, you'll find InD's XML support more amenable and less tedious than AI's. Also, you may be able to simply use InD's DataMerge feature, importing ordinary tab-delimited data (depends on the nature of the content), which is something AI can't do. An AI file is also limited to 100 Artboards (pages).

JET

[drongomala]

Hi Jet,

Many thanks for the +ve and in depth answer. In truth my preference would indeed be to do the work solely in fileMaker as InDesign would simply be for bridging and if I can avoid a data shuffling nightmare then I would.

RE: your questions.

• Images : The images for the most part will be monochrome vector graphics. There may be 1 or two illustrations in colour - RGB would be fine.
• volume : Would probably print 2-500 up initially and then move to on-demand. I'm a newbit to dealing with presses but assume it might be a digital press.

Do you have any examples of your catalogue exports that you have done?

Many thanks again for your energy

Anthony

[JETalmage · Accepted solution]

I don't really want to post screenshots here of a proprietary solution. But here's a description of a similar FMP-based "publishing" solution:

You have a layout for end-users' main browsing. Similar-looking layouts are used for data entry, but include administrative functions, fields, and flags which expedite content creation, but are not meant for end-users. Typical FMP stuff. But now you take it to the next step:

You build a Report Layout specifically sized and formatted for printing and/or exporting to PDF. You use the FMP tools for object sliding; use Container Fields and/or WebViewer objects for illustrations; use the Merge Field function and/or text Calculation Fields to format text content from multiple data fields. You can overlap fields, so having a container field in the background is simple.

You basically ignore the "publish" Layout as you create, edit, and work with data. But it's always there, and is always "already built and populated." Whenever you want to publish a print version catalog for a particular product, you just launch an FMP script which automatically:

Prompts you for the desired set of records (product model, chapter, category, etc.)

Performs the necessary find and sort.

Creates a table of contents. (Based on another print-formatted Report Layout.)

Exports the TOC as a PDF. (Typically a dozen or so pages.)

Exports the content pages as a separate PDF. (Several hundred pages is no problem.)

In a few minutes, you have an updated print-ready book.

You open the Content PDF in Acroat Pro, insert the pages from the TOC PDF in the front of it, and send it to your on-demand printing outsource. The end result is a perfect-bound manual, without ever having jumped through hoops to dump data into a conventinal-wisdom page-layout app.

So this one FMP solution:

• Is used for data entry.
• Serves as a live internal reference tool served on FMPSA.
• Serves as a data export and data analysis tool.
• Can be bound as a fully-functional standalone runtime application.
• Is web-deliverable via FMPSA's IWP.
• Is web-deliverable as a web site's "backend data" via PHP.
• Serves as the "publishing platform" for print-ready and/or web-delivered PDF-based catalogs.

Vector drawings are created in Illustrator, Draw, CAD software, or whatever, and saved as vector PDFs in a folder acessible to the FMP database. The PDFs are named according to a record's unique identifier field (primary key).

You launch Acrobat Pro and run a Batch operation which opens the folder full of PDFs and batch-exports them to an adjacent PNGs folder. The PNGs are exported to the correct size for the Container Field(s) on the print Layout. (Optionally, another Container Field on the browsing Layout displays PDF icons which are links to the PDFs for when a user needs a scaleable, zoomable vector version.) During data entry, each time a new record is created or edited, a scripted button imports both the PNG and the PDF with a click; or batch-imports the images for all records at once.

One could just as easily build a layout and script the solution to create and send HTML-formatted emails of a found page or set of pages.

Like an XML / InDesign solution, FMP effectively figures out for you how many pages are needed for the length of the TOC, and the length of the parts list that accompanies each illustration and creates and numbers them; and it does so without any need for mucking around with XML.

So in this workflow, FileMaker Pro itself is serving as the "page layout" app. All that's sacrificed is high-end printing and exacting typography; which for many practical purposes today is becomming increasingly unnecssary.

The underlying concept herein is "FileMaker and PDF"; not "FileMaker and Illustrator." (Use any graphics program you want that can render to common RGB raster formats and/or PDF).  And it's "let FileMaker automate the page assembly" instead of XML / InDesign. Just keep the page design within the capabilities of a FileMaker Layout.

JET

[drongomala]

Dear JET,

What a fantastic how-to. You make the case for 'staying inside filemaker' really well and I think this is the approach I will adopt.

I'm most grateful.

I'm sure I'll be back when I encounter weirdness with the scripting piece but being able to work on one master is the utopia as it's a multi-channel (book, web, standalone app) product.

Thanks

Anthony