The present invention facilitates the specification and distribution of templated
content materials by a content provider over an information exchange network such
as the Internet. The present invention incorporates a system for managing inventories
of graphical elements and their relationships to pre-defined page templates. A
database capable of keeping track of users and their corresponding access privileges
within the system is employed to monitor user activity. Ultimately, through the
use of a software component delivered over the Internet for use within standard
web browsers, end-users are able to populate templates under the constraints imposed
by the rules of the manufacturers at the time of template design. These population
elements which "fill in the blanks" of the pre-defined templates may be either
of type IMAGE or TEXT. Image regions are populated by choosing from a subset of
the entire image inventory, while TEXT types can be completely free form, with
specific rules guiding justification, point size, font, and leading, or "fill in
the blank" form with the same constraint rules as free form. Once the end user
has met all of the criteria for a fully populated template, the system provides
sophisticated means for downloading a high resolution file (such as a print-ready
file or other file representation of the composed publication) which encapsulates
all resources needed (layout, images, fonts, and constraint geometries) to fulfill
the requirements of the publication. The downloaded file may be printed or published
by electronic transfer, e.g., to a publisher for printing of the actual publication.