One question that often comes up in projects centered around creative collaboration in graphic design is where OPI (Open Prepress Interface) and DAM can play together. (More info on OPI)
A not dissimilar issue arises in video where low res editing is becoming an option and web based rough cuts become the norm.
The answer to the question is that DAM and OPI do not even have to be separate. Xinet for one is a DAM system that fully utilizes OPI technology. But also most other players that are serious about creative workflows will allow to place low res images in deign templates and accept cropping or placement modification to those low res images. This may be accomplished with more proprietary solutions or "Creative Plug-ins" for Adobe products or QuarkXPress. The end result is very much like OPI however.
On the video side various DAM players have worked on similar solutions. Cutting frame accurate video on low res and applying the very same cuts to the high res server side is possible today. However, craft editing is more than just the cuts. Complex color and sound manipulations are still done in Final Cut, Avid, Grass Valley or any other professional video editing suite.
Truth be told, OPI-like tools for DAM (Creative plugins as you put it) have historically fallen short of what is actually provided by an OPI engine.
However, ClearStory's Creative Connections (http://www.clearstorysystems.com) for Quark and InDesign seeks to re-write the OPI-DAM story by incorporating more DAM and OPI functionality into their plugins: Flexible Search of any-all metadata, ability to search and use asset versions, automated OPI swap, and TRUE support for compound assets (maintaining relationships to linked assets without duplicating files in the repository).
Also, most past DAM vendors have unsuccessfully tried to deliver OPI-like functionality because they failed to embrace (and support) the concept which created OPI technology in the first place: AUTOMATING THE PRODUCTION PROCESS.
You can see this in action on July 18th when we launch the "Workflow Automation Webinar", which discusses the topic and reviews the upcoming release of their ActiveMedia Solution.
To learn more about the webinar:
http://www.clearstorysystems.com//registration/detail_b.html?id=355&nid=5
Posted by: Bill | July 16, 2007 at 01:09 PM