Abstract: A template-based art creation system is used for the real-time creation of advertising art images, resulting in an automatically created, high resolution, pre-press ready art file for use in directly creating printing plates for commercial printing presses. The system includes a server module and client module. At the client module, a user creates and/or modifies a simulated advertising template, which includes a low-resolution background image for a particular type of advertisement (e.g., based on business type) and rendering data specifying where text and graphic elements are placed with respect to the background image. The user customizes the template by adding, positioning, and formatting text and graphic elements over the background image. Subsequently, information relating to the customized template is transmitted to the server module, which produces the pre-press ready art file.