Output Factory by Zevrix makes your workflows easier. Imagine that you need to work with 1500+ individual files, and imagine the time you need to spend only to save those files to either PDF or JPG format. It’s very time consuming. Since InDesign does not have a standard build-in function like Photoshop has (Automate > Batch) there is unfortunately no way to automate this process.
So I began my search for a plugin or script. Scripts work, if you have the exact same workflow for each process. That was not the case with my particular situation, as I had a wide variety in amount of files, filenames and so on. And that’s how I came across this plugin called Output Factory by Zevrix.
Save as PDF
Zevrix Output Factory has a very wide variety of option. It can load files from location (folder) but also load the files that you currently have open in InDesign. Makes it extremely easy to work with, as you can edit all your files, keep them open and then save to them to the format of your choice. There is an option to make your own workflows, so you can tell InDesign to save one file in three different PDF versions. As a Graphic Designer, this is a dream come true. You can design a whole brochure, and after approval with one click save it in three versions: Low resolution, high resolution with crop marks and high resolution without crop marks and bleed. In the meantime you can sit back and relax, and sip from your coffee of course.
Supported formats Output Factory
The supported formats are PDF, Postscript, EPS, Image, SWF, FLA, INX, IDML, EPUB, HTML and INDD.
This is the most common used for a Graphic Designer. You can make Actions (presets) which you can then combine in a Workflow. Settings for resolution, crop marks and such are not defined here. You have to load PDF profiles in InDesign beforehand, and then define these profiles within the action. You can even choose to save and close the InDesign file after exporting, or overwrite duplicates if the filename is exactly the same.
Additional you can enable layer versioning, use layer names in filenames or set a specific location as output folder.
Image
Used to save as TIFF, JPEG, PNG, GIF and BMP. Color space, resolution, quality and scale can be defined, as well as range of pages and even option to save as spread. This function is frequently used by me, for webbanners. Because InDesign supports web (pixels) and we like to have flexibility with linked images.
Why is it worth $169,95?
It has so many options, with the latest version even supporting apple scripts. So the possibilities are endless. It saves you loads of time, for example: you need to design brochures in 14 languages. After designing and approving the documents, you need to make 42 PDF files in total. You can make three actions, combine them in one workflow and load the 14 documents within the plugin. Then click “Export as PDF” and the plugin does all the work for you.
For the amount you pay, it easily pays back the time you would normally have spend exporting each PDF by hand.
