I am going to write up the research I have done on the different solutions I have found. Feel free to contribute. It is going to be pretty sloppy, mostly just facts, feel free to recraft it.

-indo

Interesting. I've thought of a pritning web front-end as a simple shopping cart with upload functionallity and order history for reprints.

It's interesting to think about what more it could do that has been too complicated to date to code in house.

I shutter at the online design template solutions as I think they create boring repetitive output vs. designing from scratch (though I get lots of vista print and other templated postcards in the mail, business cards, etc. so there's definitely a market there... especially if it could be just a little better and entice a little more creativity than the other guy's)

But even simple functions like dimension checks for bleeds and binding are difficult to code in-house and I imagine using a SaaS storefront where lots of users share the development cost could do much more sophistocated preflight checkes at the time of file upload instead of catching errors later and having to recontact the customer and cause a delay...

Off to have a look at the articles you've added to the wiki now (and thanks!)

Well, think of how many clients don't want to pay for design... Also this isn't just about pre-made templates, if a user has a custom design make a template out of that design available only to that customer, then s/he can change the name for new employees etc without your help.

Oh, and on top of that you don't spend time messing with imposition, etc- you just get a ganged sheet ready to run. Kind of like the automated cutter you have, no thought required : )