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Citation Software Inc.
Specialists in variable-data publishing since 1986
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www.CitationSoftware.com info@CitationSoftware.com 508-436-2543
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QUESTION: What is metadata?
ANSWER: Metadata is
"data about data." Most often, the term "metadata" is
used to refer to
data that helps to describe the content or characteristics of a file.
For example, the metadata for a PDF file might include such things as
- Title
- Subject
- Creator
- Producer
- Creation Date
- Searchable keywords
- Author and copyright information, status or notices
- Special caption or headlines
- Project name and description
- File's project version number or final version notice
- Owner URL, final posting URL or URL to a database containing more information relevant to a project.
- Page Size
The metadata for a JPEG file includes such things as:
- Number of bits per sample
- Number of lines in the image
- Number of samples in each line in the image
This information is what enables software that displays or prints
JPEG images to do those tasks properly.
Sometimes a document's metadata is embedded in the document file itself,
whereas in other situations a document's metadata could be in a separate
file.
Standards for metadata
There is a movement toward adoption of a standard way of representing metadata and a
standard way of embedding metadata into files. Several standards are emerging
in the printing, publishing, and graphic-arts industries.
One such standard is referred to as XMP, which stands for eXtensible Metadata Platform.
Adobe Systems Incorporated developed the XMP specification. Quite a few Adobe applications
support XMP, including Adobe Acrobat, Adobe FrameMaker, Adobe GoLive,
Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Document Server.
Opaque metadata
Metadata that is not organized in a standard format for which
documentation is widely available is known as "opaque metadata."
Making use of metadata
Various software tools and systems are available
that facilitate the task of utilizing metadata in various kinds of
document files. Such software tools facilitate the tasks of
creating, managing, and utilizing content by:
- allowing for the creation of "smart assets" that
retain context when passed across multiple file
formats, software applications, devices, and databases
- enabling flexible search and retrieval across diverse file formats and databases
- facilitating workflow automation (content-management systems can be customized to
automate tasks with the help of the metadata schema)
- extending the content life cycle (files can be found and repurposed across multiple
versions and renditions.
Software tools and systems that can make good use of XMP metadata are
referred to as "XMP-enabled" software tools and systems.
Powerful publishing-workflow-automation systems: FullSWITCH and PowerSWITCH
The FullSWITCH and PowerSWITCH products offered by Citation Software are
examples of software tools that allow you to make good use of metadata.
FullSWITCH and PowerSWITCH make it easy to set up an automated workflow
that can (in addition to many other things) make processing decisions based
on metadata. For example, FullSWITCH or PowerSWITCH can utilize
a document's page-size metadata to decide automatically which printer to
use for printing that document.
To get more information about FullSWITCH and PowerSWITCH, click
here.
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Copyright © 2008 Citation Software Inc.
info@CitationSoftware.com
508-436-2543
www.CitationSoftware.com
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