Arbortext Advanced Print Publisher
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Arbortext Advanced Print Publisher (APP, formerly Advent 3B2) is a type-setting 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 a publishing toolbox wrapped around a core page composition engine. Its highly customisable nature and large array of vertical-specific features enable it to be tailored for almost any publishing environment in both black-box and manual configurations.
The native handling of chevron delimited mark-up such as SGML, XML, HTML or users bespoke ML, together with its own powerful macro and scripting languages coupled with the number of standard technologies such as Perl, XPath, Unicode available from within the application, make it a favourite (and sometimes a passion!) of solution developers all over the world facing complex publishing challenges.
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[edit] 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 Swindon (UK) that Advent had its offices at the time.
- Early 2000s: Advent integrate more XML 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
[edit] 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 Edgar reports for Securities and Exchange Commission filings
- Government reports such as Hansard, daily journals and other reports.
[edit] 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 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.
