The idea of personalized printing is amazing for commercial printers, may they be small or large businesses, that VDP is constantly a topic of conversation in the printing industry. And thanks to digital equipment manufacturers, software developers, database visionaries, etc. etc., VDP is finding some significant success. Many companies are now adopting strategies to help VDP become more popular even with the smaller industries. They are developing significant dents in technology and infrastructure to support VDP and provide software to make it work as easily as most of the other desktop applications. We in the industry expect to see significant advances still in years to come.
At present, here are some innovations and trends to help boost VDP in the world of digital printing.
Print Servers for VDP Only
Companies such as Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Creo, and EFI are building print servers around VDP. Such servers feature many functions specialized in producing one-off pieces with 100 percent variable data. RIPs are now able to operate fast enough to feed data to a print engine to produce VDP.EFI offers a complete VDP solution that includes Fiery FreeForm, PPML plus legacy languages, PageFlex Persona, PrintShop Mail-Fiery versions, and the new Fiery Q4000 color server. This color server integrates consistent color, network connectivity, centralized management, and a PDF-based workflow. A data center package connects to IBM mainframes or AS/400s while production features allow mixing of media, insertion of blank pages, subset finishing, such as stapling, sorting and collating, and tab printing and insertion of up to 40 tabs.
As part of their continuous service in promoting the development of VDP, EFI is also working with many companies to open up VDP possibilities for mid-range print engines from around 11ppm and to high-end and full production print engines of 25 ppm and up.
Software Solutions
Many software companies are now offering packages that help make VDP easier for users. They have Incorporated PPML to their packages as an open source solution to VDP. The companies include: Banta Integrated Media with DesignMerge 4.0; Creo and the Darwin Desktop authoring tool; Exstream Software with Dialogue; GMC Software with a suite of GMC PrintNet personalization software; IBM with AFP workflow for complex variable content documents; Printsoft with tools to create personalized documents and messages for print, email, fax, Internet, XML, and SMS; Xeikon with the new IntelliStream data workflow; Atlas Software's PrintShop Mail that supports all major RIP technologies; and Think 121.com.These software companies formed a number of alliances and partnerships with major equipment manufacturers such as IBM, Oce, Xerox, HP Indigo, Canon, Ricoh, Xeikon, VersaMark, NexPress, itachi Koki, Man Roland, and Epson. While most software providers support open standards through PPML, they also support formats such as VIPP, VPS, FreeForm, PrintStreamer, PDF, PostScript, and XML.
This software, as well as more in development, cover a spectrum of applications, from desktop, lower volume, simple jobs that tend to be designed and printed quickly to complex, automated mainframe-based jobs that require extensive setup and operate with hands-off precision. Desktop applications are sometimes used to set up testing models for higher volume jobs, and some desktop applications will also handle large volume jobs.
From desktop jobs through complex jobs, Persona from PageFlex allows the user to design documents, including images, from scratch using standard GUI tool that support common design functions such as leading, kerning, justification, and hyphenation. The user can import Quark and PageMaker files and allow for changing window sizes for text, photos, and illustrations. Persona stores and reuses variable elements to maximize RIP speed to drive the printer at its rated engine speed. A librarian tool enables users to enter metadata for selecting rules to drive variable data as well as manage text and data. Jobs can be reviewed easily and, because it supports PPML, Persona works with many different print engines and servers.
Read on for the role of Print Devices in variable data printing.
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