Unlimited SKUs, one click
Whether it's 80 products or 50,000, the engine paginates the whole catalog from your spreadsheet — sections, running headers, page numbers and a back-of-book index, laid out automatically.
Free preview · paste a CSV, no signup
Spreadsheet in, print-ready catalog out. Unlimited SKUs, zero broken Data Merge.
Spec Forge is a self-serve engine plus a UXP panel that turns your product spreadsheet into print-ready InDesign catalogs, price lists and spec sheets — laid out, paginated and proofed. It replaces fragile Data Merge and the $20k agency script that breaks every time a column moves.
Parses your CSV right here
No InDesign skills needed
Print-ready PDF + INDD out
Paste your product spreadsheet (CSV)
Each page is built from your columns — title, SKU, price and spec rows mapped automatically. This preview really parses your paste. The full engine renders the same layout to print-ready InDesign + PDF.
Built for catalog & price-list owners
Excel / CSV in
InDesign UXP panel
Print-ready PDF out
No Data Merge
Why teams switch off Data Merge
Three things change the day your catalog runs from a spreadsheet.
You don't learn a new design tool or wait on an agency queue. You map your spreadsheet to a template once, then re-run it whenever prices, specs or SKUs change.
Nothing breaks when a column moves
Data Merge shatters the moment a field is renamed or reordered. Spec Forge maps columns by meaning, validates every record before layout, and tells you exactly which rows need a fix — instead of silently dropping them.
One template build, then self-serve
We build your branded template once. After that your team re-runs the catalog from the UXP panel or the web engine whenever the data changes — no $20k re-script, no waiting on a designer for a price update.
The catalog season trap
Every price change means rebuilding a 400-page document by hand.
01 / DATA MERGE IS FRAGILE
It breaks, then it lies
One renamed column and the merge fails — or worse, silently skips rows and ships a catalog with missing products. Nobody notices until a customer orders something that isn't priced.
02 / AGENCY SCRIPTING IS PRICEY
$20k, and you still can't touch it
A studio writes a bespoke script, takes weeks, and bills five figures. When your catalog structure changes next season, you're back in their queue paying again to edit code you can't read.
03 / IT LANDS ON ONE DESK
The whole season blocks on you
Marketing owns the deadline, but only one person knows how to coax the layout out. Every spec tweak, every new line, every reprint waits on that single bottleneck.
Spec Forge removes the two jobs eating your catalog season — hand-laying records and patching brittle merges — by mapping the spreadsheet to a validated template once and letting you re-run it on demand.
The engine, at a glance
Spreadsheet to print-ready, in four moves.
Build the template once; re-run it forever. The full breakdown lives on the how-it-works page.
01
Map the sheet
Point your columns — name, SKU, price, specs, image — at a Spec Forge template. Once.
02
Validate
The engine checks every record — missing prices, bad images, empty fields — before any layout.
03
Run
It paginates the whole catalog — sections, headers, index — from the UXP panel or the web engine.
04
Ship
Out comes a print-ready PDF and an editable InDesign file. Reprint by re-running the sheet.
↻
Re-run anytime
Price change? New season? Update the sheet, hit run. No re-script, no agency queue.
Pricing
Build the template once. Run it as often as you like.
A one-time template build to wire your spreadsheet to a branded layout, then a simple monthly run-access plan so your team can re-run the catalog on demand.
Template Build
$1,200–$3,000
We build your branded catalog / price-list / spec-sheet template and wire it to your spreadsheet. 50% deposit to start.
- Branded, print-ready template
- Column mapping + validation rules
- One-time; you keep the template
Run-Access Pro
$499 / mo
Multiple templates, higher volume and the UXP panel. ~12,000 records/mo, then $0.05/record.
- Self-serve runs, on demand
- InDesign UXP panel included
- Overage $0.05 / record
Run-Access Scale
$1,499 / mo
Unlimited templates, priority runs and a 90-day break-fix SLA. ~50,000 records/mo, then $0.05/record.
- Unlimited templates
- Priority run queue
- 90-day break-fix SLA
Scope a template build
Send us your spreadsheet shape. We'll quote the build.
Tell us roughly how many SKUs you carry and what you're producing — a catalog, a price list, a set of spec sheets — and we'll come back with a fixed template-build quote and the run-access plan that fits. No obligation.
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Common questions
The short version.
How is this different from InDesign Data Merge?
Data Merge maps one record to one frame and falls over on anything complex — multi-page sections, variable images, tables, or a renamed column. Spec Forge maps your spreadsheet to a real template by meaning, validates every row before layout, paginates entire sections with running heads and an index, and never silently drops a product. When the data changes, you re-run; you don't rebuild.
Do I need to know InDesign?
No. We build the template for you in the one-time build. After that, your team runs the catalog from the UXP panel inside InDesign or from the web engine — it's "pick a template, point at the sheet, hit run." The output is a print-ready PDF plus an editable InDesign file if you want to fine-tune.
What does the spreadsheet need to look like?
A normal export from Excel, Google Sheets or your PIM — one row per product, columns for name, SKU, price, specs and an image reference. The engine maps columns automatically and flags anything missing. You can try it right now: paste a CSV into the build console above and it renders your first catalog pages in the browser.
What does it cost?
A one-time template build runs $1,200–$3,000 depending on complexity (50% deposit to start), then run-access is $149/mo Starter, $499/mo Pro or $1,499/mo Scale, with overage at $0.05/record beyond the plan allowance. The full breakdown — including the 90-day break-fix SLA on Scale — is on the pricing page.