A html form on the web is today the simplest form to get data from man to machine.
Fill out the fields, press submit, end of story.
The concept of web-to-print, where a form is the gateway to personalize sophisticated documents, is around for a few years now.
It's an easy and efficient way to produce standardized documents, with as little effort as possible. And the results even look all bright and shiny.
In a lot of solutions, Pixelboxx is a key component, supplying a pdf engine with the right-sized images.
An even more sophisticated way of producing tangible goods out of a simple piece of web data is RPM.
RPM, rapid prototyping and manufacturing parts, is a technology to create 3d things, made of ABS plastics, out of some digital data.
Sort of a laserjet with 3 dimensional plastics output.
RedEye RPM is a website, where you upload a cad file, get a price quote, order whatever you designed in that cad file and get it.
Rapid Prototyping - like web to print with nipples.