Silicon Publishing has announced patent-pending technology that bridges the internet and the page-layout application, Adobe InDesign, which has traditionally required file-based asset and content workflows. With this new technology, data and assets are available to InDesign directly over HTTP and other internet protocols.

At a pre-release demo, President Max Dunn showed how you can now pull internet-based content or assets directly into a page you’re working on in InDesign, without having to reference your local or network file system.

With Silicon Connector, dragging a thumbnail image from a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system into InDesign can create an HTTP-based link to the source asset, which can include the full spectrum of asset and content types available to InDesign.

He also demonstrated how Silicon Connector’s technology manages updates to ensure you’re working with the latest versions of linked content. While the document is open, images and content will update in real time in parallel with any changes to the referenced assets, in accordance with versioning rules provided by the DAM.

Currently, in most organisations, authors have to move files around to keep updated versions of assets available for different forms of output—for example re-linking to preview, web, or print versions on network file shares. It is now possible to set document-level parameters that will update links to reflect settings such as rendition type without having to manage individual files.

With just one command, all document assets are refreshed appropriate to the intended form of output such as replacement of low-res FPO assets with high-res production graphics.

Silicon Publishing is working with DAM and Content Management System (CMS) companies to launch system-specific uses of the product, as they finalize some custom implementations for enterprises that manage large-scale InDesign-centric workflows.