Automated catalogue creation

[moustachebandit]

Possibly wishful thinking.

Just wondering whether anyone has come across a service / product that can essentially compile a catalogue automatically.

So we set the framework, coding and it then pulls through product shots, information etc from our database.

Current situation is we have a 500+ page product catalogue with over 2k+ lines. The company has made a move to go completely digital yet we service some markets that are stuck in their ways and like the browsability of a catalogue rather than relying on an online.

Just trying to find a way to deliver a compromise solution which is minimal imapct and doesnt require huge amounts of man hours to produce.

Thanks

[plasticpig]

One of my clients uses MS Publisher and the catalog merge option. However at 500 pages I suspect Adobe InDesign and one of the third party plugins will probably be more suitable. This plugin looks like it will probably do the job judging by their client list

[moustachebandit]

PlasticPig - thanks for the heads up. Easy catalogue looks like it might be exactly what we need to use. Going to get a trial downloaded and test it out. Will be a massive win if it works out properly!

Cheers

[akirk]

the alternative is to have online code building PDFs for you - may be a little more hassle / cost in the initial set up but if you want to run the master data online to feed an online catalogue as well, then it can give you all sorts of options from creating a full catalogue to auto-creating sub category based catalogues etc. for some who want a physical catalogue they don't mind having a PDF to print (nice and easy), though some may still want a properly printed version - all depends... it also allows the catalogue to always be immediately up to date with any changes you do online...

like anything automated - the more reliably consistent the data and the photos, the easier it is...