The Print-ready image fields have been available for use in BLOX Total CMS for many years. Soon there will be import features to load uuid named images to these fields. Image Placement already supports using them when placing images and if the page is marked as a Color or BW page, the selection of which print ready image to use will be automatic.
Image Toning for Remote Distributed Production Users
By Jon S. Winters
Product Architect
Updated
Non-Distributed Production Image Toning Options
Sites have many options for toning images!
Some sites tone images for print before adding the image assets to BLOX Total CMS. Others tone after they are placed on the page. BLOX Total CMS is flexible, and TownNews wants you to have a workflow that meets your needs. There are actually too many options and variations on those options to list them all here.
However, for your “In Office” Local users, nothing needs to change. Likewise, if you are not using Distributed Production, nothing needs to change.
But, because of access, some Remote users may need new options.
Adobe InDesign's Edit Original via Adobe Photoshop
Some sites have always skipped using Image Statuses. This is fine. If they are a Creative Cloud user (and Distributed Production only works with Creative Cloud) they can skip the use of Image Statuses and tone images for print using Adobe InDesign's Edit Original or Edit With features. Those functions will open the image with Adobe Photoshop where the image can be toned, have its mode converted, and then saved. Upon returning to Adobe InDesign, the toned copy will be on the page.
This workflow is ideal if the users are trained how to tone for print. It's also exceptionally fast for Page Designers in Adobe InDesign because they won't need to wait for other users or processes to tone and return the image.
Existing Image Statuses access for Remote Users with VPN
Image Statuses still functions for the Remote users. The Image Toning Preferences are to be uploaded to Page Tracker as part of the Preparedness Testing. To continue with an existing workflow of importing RGB images onto Adobe InDesign pages and then exporting them to a hot folder where a person or third-party process tones them for print, the Remote users would only need access to the requisite folders. That would normally be handled via VPN access. Since the images are not linked to those remote folders, users don't have to deal with Adobe InDesign’s constant link-checking.
New Image Statuses Option to Export to Data Feeds without VPN
Page Tracker version 1.16 adds an option to export images to the Data Feeds folder. This means that a remote user, without taxing their Internet bandwidth and without a need for VPN access, can export images for toning. An exported image in BLOX Total CMS is the same version as that placed on the Adobe InDesign page. But the export is handled by the BLOX Total CMS server and not the remote user's workstation. This makes it faster for everyone involved.
Like with your existing workflow, where a person or a third-party application watches the export folder, the same thing would be possible with this. All that changes is the where the hot folder is located. Using this new option, if the site is appliance-based, it would be in the designated folder in the domainName_local_data_feeds share. For non-appliance sites, an FTP client will be needed to monitor for exported images.
After being toned for print, the images will need to go to a different hot folder than currently used because BLOX CMS version 1.59 added an importer that will add the print-ready images to the original image asset. They can be viewed in the Print Tab of the asset, as shown below:
The Print-ready image fields have been available for use in BLOX Total CMS for many years. Soon there will be import features to load uuid named images to these fields. Image Placement already supports using them when placing images and if the page is marked as a Color or BW page, the selection of which print ready image to use will be automatic.
Notes:
Because the importers run on a timer, there can be up to a 15 minute delay while waiting for the toned images to become available. Sites should plan on this!
Developers indicated that images can't be imported if the asset is in use by a user. Thus, when images are exported using the Image Statuses option that exports to the Data Feeds directory, the image assets are checked in. Currently the BLOX Total CMS client for Adobe InDesign will not allow a check out until the toned image is imported via Image Statuses. However, an ideal workflow for "Phase 1", is to have users place the image assets, edit the captions as necessary and export for toning. Then just leave the image assets alone until the print-ready versions have been imported via Image Statuses.
Configuration For New Options
The necessary configuration change to your Image Toning Preferences to use this feature, once Page Tracker version 1.16 is available, is the inclusion of::
<purpose>distributed</purpose>
In addition to the purpose option, a <subfolder>, instead of a <folderPath>, is used to identify where in the data feeds directory the images are exported. In many cases, the existing preferences are already configured to specify subfolders, so to add this distributed option the process might be as simple as replicating the existing CMYK and/or Grayscale/BW export options and adding the new distributedpurpose.
Normal and Local Users too
Note, this new distributed option isn't just for Remote users. All the site's users can use the export to Data Feeds and the importer to feed the Print-Ready images. An added benefit of this process is that subsequent uses of those images will not need to be re-exported and toned because the BLOX Total CMS client for Adobe InDesign has always preferred the Print-Ready images over the RGB images. Also, when a page's color preference is known, it will automatically import either the CMYK or the Grayscale/BW image as necessitated by the page's color determination.
This is an excellent idea for sites that want to centralize image toning across many, many sites.
