Arbortext Advanced Print Publisher
Encyclopedia
Arbortext Advanced Print Publisher (APP, formerly Advent 3B2) is a commercial typesetting software application. Specifically, it is a high-end print composition engine, and an Arbortext product made by the PTC
. APP is a rules-based engine which allows the stylesheet builder to fully automate page make-up tasks and run them in a 'lights out' server mode.
APP is originally developed by a company called Advent Publishing Systems, Ltd., based in Swindon, UK. Advent Publishing was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Swindon, United Kingdom with additional offices in United States and Germany. Later Advent become a subsidiary of Arbortext, Inc. and Arbortext is now coming under the PTC. The Arbortext business unit under PTC designs, develops, and markets publishing software.
Looking at the above list most of these software are WYSIWIG. You can import your data, illustrations and color schemes to the typesetting application and you can make your formatted output. Each of the above software have different types of commands or user interaction systems. Microsoft Word is often categorised as an office automation package rather than a typesetting application. TeX/LaTeX is working with an entirely different methodology. In simple terms, it is a typesetting programming language and each of your outputs have to be compiled for obtaining the final output.
APP stands out in the above list with a completely different platform for typesetting. APP can accept both structured or unstructured data. In another way, APP is also a publishing programming language which does not need to be compiled every time when you are obtaining an output. As for a programming language, APP have its own macro keywords and commands and scripting system. APP also accept other scripting languages such as Perl
and JavaScript
.
APP is a publishing toolbox wrapped around a core page composition engine. It claims to support chevron delimited mark-up such as SGML, XML
, HTML
, has a macro and scripting language, and uses a number of established technologies such as Perl, XPath
, and Unicode
.
Principal outputs are PostScript
and PDF, although APP also provides a number of alternative output drivers.
APP provides a WYSIWYG
view of pages in the desktop version, which can be used to manipulate pages after automated composition, or to build templates.
APP has two working modes. The basic mode is interactive mode in which the formatted output can be edited. The Black Box mode is a fully automated mode where you will not be able to edit while creating the formatted output. The Black Box mode will help you to create the print products like books, journals, technical specifications, financial documents, etc. quickly and with less manpower.
Parametric Technology Corporation
Parametric Technology Corporation is a U.S.-based company that develops, markets and supports software for product development. Its main products are for CAD/CAM, engineering calculations, and product lifecycle management. Its customers include companies in manufacturing, publishing, services,...
. APP is a rules-based engine which allows the stylesheet builder to fully automate page make-up tasks and run them in a 'lights out' server mode.
APP is originally developed by a company called Advent Publishing Systems, Ltd., based in Swindon, UK. Advent Publishing was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Swindon, United Kingdom with additional offices in United States and Germany. Later Advent become a subsidiary of Arbortext, Inc. and Arbortext is now coming under the PTC. The Arbortext business unit under PTC designs, develops, and markets publishing software.
Introduction
Typesetting software is software which is designed to work based on a formatted stylesheet to create output for print media. The stylesheet is a set of rules that design the layout, typography color schemes for a print media product. There are many software packages available under the category of typesetting applications. Currently the following software packages are having much of the popularity in the industry.- Adobe Indesign
- Quark Xpress
- Arbortext Advanced Print Publisher, also known as APP
- XML Professional Publisher, also known as XPP
- Microsoft Word
- TeX/LaTeX
Looking at the above list most of these software are WYSIWIG. You can import your data, illustrations and color schemes to the typesetting application and you can make your formatted output. Each of the above software have different types of commands or user interaction systems. Microsoft Word is often categorised as an office automation package rather than a typesetting application. TeX/LaTeX is working with an entirely different methodology. In simple terms, it is a typesetting programming language and each of your outputs have to be compiled for obtaining the final output.
APP stands out in the above list with a completely different platform for typesetting. APP can accept both structured or unstructured data. In another way, APP is also a publishing programming language which does not need to be compiled every time when you are obtaining an output. As for a programming language, APP have its own macro keywords and commands and scripting system. APP also accept other scripting languages such as Perl
Perl
Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Perl was originally developed by Larry Wall in 1987 as a general-purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier. Since then, it has undergone many changes and revisions and become widely popular...
and JavaScript
JavaScript
JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....
.
APP is a publishing toolbox wrapped around a core page composition engine. It claims to support chevron delimited mark-up such as SGML, XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
, HTML
HTML
HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
, has a macro and scripting language, and uses a number of established technologies such as Perl, XPath
XPath
XPath is a language for selecting nodes from an XML document. In addition, XPath may be used to compute values from the content of an XML document...
, and Unicode
Unicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
.
History
- Mid-1980s: Advent Publishing Systems create 3B2, a desktop publishing application. 3B2 gained a reputation as a challenger for Quark, but was soon eclipsed by that product in the DTP world and evolved into the high end automation market. The name 3B2 comes from the business park in SwindonSwindonSwindon is a large town within the borough of Swindon and ceremonial county of Wiltshire, in South West England. It is midway between Bristol, west and Reading, east. London is east...
(UK) that Advent had its offices in at the time. - Early 2000s: Advent integrate more XMLXMLExtensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
technologies into 3B2, allowing users to associate formatting with XML hierarchies - 2004: Advent Publishing Systems is purchased by Arbortext to provide a more powerful alternative to its FOSI/TeX engine
- 2005: Arbortext purchased by PTC to provide technical documentation capabilities in its product lifecycle management tools
Licensing
PTC make Arbortext Advanced Print Publisher available under a commercial license on a per-CPU basis. The PTC web site does not give specific pricing information.Uses
APP has traditionally been used for a number of specific typesetting tasks.- Scientific technical and medical journal publishing, particularly in India. APP's automation, SGML/XML handling and mathematics formatting mean this difficult layout task can be automated
- Financial typesetting, particularly generation of EdgarEdgarEdgar is a common name from Old English words ead + gar . Literally meaning "prosperity-spear" or "prosperous spearman." It may refer to:-Historical:...
reports for Securities and Exchange Commission filings - Government reports such as HansardHansardHansard is the name of the printed transcripts of parliamentary debates in the Westminster system of government. It is named after Thomas Curson Hansard, an early printer and publisher of these transcripts.-Origins:...
, daily journals and other reports.
Technologies
APP applies text and page formatting properties in a proprietary language based on SGML mark-up. APP 'templates' are stylesheets which comprise page layouts, text formatting styles and scripting. Scripting is used to automate the publishing process using 'macros', which are low-level system commands. When using XML, a template can employ XPath to specify the exact conditions to which style is applied.Principal outputs are PostScript
PostScript
PostScript is a dynamically typed concatenative programming language created by John Warnock and Charles Geschke in 1982. It is best known for its use as a page description language in the electronic and desktop publishing areas. Adobe PostScript 3 is also the worldwide printing and imaging...
and PDF, although APP also provides a number of alternative output drivers.
APP provides a WYSIWYG
WYSIWYG
WYSIWYG is an acronym for What You See Is What You Get. The term is used in computing to describe a system in which content displayed onscreen during editing appears in a form closely corresponding to its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product...
view of pages in the desktop version, which can be used to manipulate pages after automated composition, or to build templates.
Publishing with APP
When creating a print publishing product, the starting point will be creating a stylesheet. APP enables creating a dynamic stylesheet which will render the output in different way according to your structured data inputs. In another way, the APP stylesheet can be designed in such a way that it is driven by the data. The inbuilt scripting system will help create a suitable workflow to create the formatted output. It can be either fully automated or an interactive workflow based on your stylesheet's specifications.APP has two working modes. The basic mode is interactive mode in which the formatted output can be edited. The Black Box mode is a fully automated mode where you will not be able to edit while creating the formatted output. The Black Box mode will help you to create the print products like books, journals, technical specifications, financial documents, etc. quickly and with less manpower.