How Much of Your Catalog Production Should You Automate?

Summary: Automate repeatable content tasks while keeping designers involved where pages need individual attention. Use automated PDF rendering when layouts and content variations can follow defined rules. A separate publishing platform moves assembly into another environment, with controls that depend on the system. The right combination depends on the publication, the output you need and where your team wants to work.

How do product catalog workflows differ?

A seasonal catalog and a technical product sheet can draw on the same product information, but they call for different decisions about layout, emphasis and automation. In the catalog, a designer may give one product a full spread, choose a campaign image and rearrange the page around an offer. In the technical sheet, the information may always follow the same structure: product name, image, specifications and ordering details.

Both involve repetitive work, but they need different approaches to automation.

In our webinar with Pimcore, When Product Data and Design Don’t Align: Fixing the Root Cause of Catalog Delays, we discussed three publishing approaches before demonstrating Factory’s Pimcore to Adobe InDesign Integration:

• A designer works in desktop Adobe InDesign with product content connected to the document.
• A system renders finished PDFs from structured data and predefined rules.
• A separate publishing platform manages publication assembly in its own interface.

These approaches can overlap. A publishing platform may also use automated rendering. The distinction is where the team builds the publication, which tasks follow rules and which decisions remain with people.

Start with the content that every approach needs

Whichever production method a company chooses, it first needs to know where approved product content comes from.

Pimcore’s product information management (PIM) capabilities can bring descriptions, specifications, product relationships and language versions into a structured source. Its digital asset management (DAM) capabilities organise the related images and files. Information such as prices may continue to originate in an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and enter the publishing process through Pimcore.

This gives publishing teams controlled access to the information and assets they need. Page design and document production then depend on the publishing workflow built around that content.

1. Keep the designer in the loop when every page needs attention

Consider a promotional catalog in which the assortment and product placement change with every edition. One offer needs a larger price, another needs a close-up image, and several related products need to work together across a spread.

A designer needs to decide what receives emphasis, how images are cropped and how the page works as a whole. The repetitive work is finding product information, copying it into the layout and checking whether it has changed.

Factory’s Pimcore to Adobe InDesign Integration supports this content work. Designers can browse the product information and assets made available from Pimcore, insert selected fields into prepared InDesign placeholders, place approved images and check for changes to connected content.

In the webinar, Jelena Hrga, frontend developer at Factory, demonstrated the workflow. She populated prepared elements with product information and images, changed the source content in Pimcore, then returned to InDesign to review and apply the available updates. The designer initiates that process and decides what to refresh.

What the integration reduces

• Searching for approved product information and images.
• Copying individual product fields into the document.
• Checking source files or spreadsheets to see what changed.
• Retyping changed content across connected layouts.

What remains with the designer

• Choosing the page composition and visual hierarchy.
• Deciding which products and fields appear.
• Adjusting images, text frames and styling.
• Reviewing how content changes affect the surrounding layout.
• Preparing and approving the final output.

In the workflow demonstrated, the connection runs from Pimcore to InDesign. It supports content placement and updates within a document; it does not continuously rebuild the publication or make layout decisions in the background.

This approach suits data-heavy catalogs, promotional brochures, packaging and other materials where product content changes frequently and designers need detailed control over the result.

Our catalog management project for Plodine shows this workflow in retail. ERP data, product information and images are managed through Pimcore and connected with InDesign to support weekly promotional catalog production.

2. Use automated rendering for repeatable, rule-based documents

Now consider a technical sheet produced for every product in a range. The product name appears in one position, images follow defined rules, and specifications use a consistent table.

Once those rules have been established, the system can combine structured product data and assets with the configured layout and generate a finished PDF. Design decisions are made earlier, when the template and its behaviour are defined, rather than for every individual document.

How Pimcore Web-to-Print fits this model

In the automated-rendering model described here, Pimcore Web-to-Print uses configured templates to render the publication as HTML and convert it into a PDF. The result is a finished PDF, not an editable InDesign document that a designer completes.

The implementation defines how content fits the layout, how variations are handled and when outputs are generated. This makes the approach suitable for repeatable documents whose differences can be expressed as rules.

What automated rendering can handle

• Selecting the relevant product data and images.
• Applying layout and content rules across many documents.
• Producing language or market versions from available content.
• Generating PDFs without opening each document in a desktop design tool.
• Rebuilding outputs according to an implemented schedule or workflow trigger.

What people must define and approve

• The template, typography, spacing and page behaviour.
• Which product fields and assets appear in each section.
• How optional content, long text, missing images and large tables behave.
• What triggers generation or regeneration.
• Where finished PDFs are stored and how they are approved for release.

Storing product data in Pimcore does not automatically rebuild every previously generated PDF. Scheduled, data-triggered or workflow-triggered updates need to be part of the implementation.

A template can accommodate optional sections, different specification groups and approved layout variants. It becomes less suitable when each page requires a new creative decision.

In the webinar, Matej Sudar, co-owner and CXO at Factory, used cut sheets and sell sheets as examples of repeatable materials.

Our article on automated brochure production for KNUTH describes a related implementation. Product data and images populate predefined layouts for around 1,000 product brochures, available in nine languages for three markets. A configured daily process updates the brochures and provides a report. That schedule is part of the implemented solution.

3. Separate publishing platforms move assembly outside desktop InDesign

In this approach, users select products, organise pages and manage production through a publishing platform’s own interface. The system produces the output using its rendering process or a server-side composition engine.

Some platforms use Adobe InDesign Server as the composition engine; others use different rendering technologies. The practical question is what the platform allows your team to assemble, edit and export.

What this model changes

• Publication planning and assembly move into the platform.
• Templates, workflows and available design controls depend on that system.
• Designers and marketers work within the platform’s editing environment.
• Product data must be managed inside the platform or supplied through an integration.

This approach can suit teams that want one environment for publication planning, assembly and output, and are comfortable changing how they work. Its suitability depends on the production steps it supports and the creative control it provides.

A team that needs to keep detailed page design in desktop InDesign should check whether a platform supports that requirement. Data connections, editing options and output formats vary, so these need to be assessed for each solution.

The first two approaches can work particularly well together. A manufacturer might use a designer-led InDesign workflow for a seasonal catalog and automated rendering for technical sheets. Both can use the same managed product information and assets.

As Ashley Laing, VP North America at Pimcore, noted during the webinar, a business does not have to choose one method for every publication.

Choose by the job the publication needs to do

A high product count alone does not determine how much to automate. A large catalog may depend on page-specific design decisions, while a two-page technical sheet produced for thousands of products may be a stronger candidate for automated rendering.

Use these questions to assess each publication:

• Does every page need a designer’s judgement? If product emphasis, image selection and composition change each time, keep the designer involved.
• Can the differences be expressed as rules? Stable structures, optional sections and defined content variations suit automated rendering.
• Does the team need an editable InDesign document? The PDF-rendering approach described here produces a finished output. Check that the chosen workflow delivers the working files your team needs.
• Where should the team assemble the publication? Decide whether that work should remain in desktop InDesign, follow configured rendering rules or move into a publishing platform.
• How should product changes reach existing outputs? Define who reviews InDesign updates or what triggers PDF regeneration and release approval.
• What exceptions occur in real content? Test long descriptions, unusual tables, missing images and one-off campaign pages before applying the method at scale.

For the data and coordination problems that come before this decision, see our guide to product catalog preparation challenges.

See the designer-led approach in practice

Our webinar compares these publishing approaches before demonstrating Factory’s Pimcore to Adobe InDesign Integration. See how designers find product information and images, place them into prepared elements, check for content changes and decide which updates to apply.

Watch the webinar: When Product Data and Design Don’t Align: Fixing the Root Cause of Catalog Delays