Flatplanning

The humble flatplan has come a long way since the pencil and paper days where it was a close relative of the ‘back of a fag packet’ school of thought. Originally merely a simple to reference guide to the editorial and advertising content of a publication, where users can see an instant map of the issue, the flatplan is still that, but now has the potential to be at the centre of a digital workflow.

It remains an issue for many publishers. There are off-the-shelf, online solutions available that publishers can either invest in themselves, or can take advantage of via the services of repro and print suppliers. These software solutions are packed with functionality, but can be expensive.

Another way to do it is to build your own – that however also requires resources and expertise, at least in the shorter term as the product is developed. Increasingly, publishers and software vendors are looking to find ways of linking a flatplan with other systems, where the exchange of data will help to automate areas of the management of a publication – ad booking systems being the most commonly stated example. Increasingly, such systems allow users to download low resolution preview PDFs or high resolution print-ready pages to proof.

Not every publisher is looking for sophistication though. One says: “Our system is very basic and very simple. It’s fantastic and it gives us exactly what we need: complete transparency about our processes and scheduling. It’s not an all-singing, all-dancing system like you get from other software vendors, but our network infrastructure doesn’t grind to a halt when the editorial, advertising and production teams are all using it.”

“Everybody sees it; it has allowed much more collaboration; it prompts discussion, and people have much calmer conversations.”

In general, publishers want a rich seam of functionality, including the ability to work on different versions of a flatplan; they want eventually to bring their editorial and advertising systems together into a workflow that automates basics tasks and provides quick access to production management information. They want speed.

It seems that many of the off-the-shelf flatplan software solutions have not measured up to what publishers wanted from them, or were not sufficiently speedy, but the good news is that perhaps the vendors are getting their acts in order. One vendor says: “The single biggest request from publishers has been for a specific user interface designed for publishers, totally different to the interface presented to a printer or pre-media. It’s less to do with feature sets, and more to do with how we present the system to the user.”

Inevitably, considering the direction that flatplan solutions are taking towards integration with other links in the publishing chain, there is increasing mention of the role that JDF might play for publishers. For many, especially smaller publishing houses, this is still distinctly blue sky stuff.

Whether a large or small publisher, cost is always going to be the main determinant in the flatplan system you choose though – expensive, function-packed solution out of the box, printer or repro-operated system or in-house developed.