Harcore VDP

[UberTech]

Is anyone doing massive VDP work, in the sense of image VDP and huge databases? Not so much the mail merge stuff, or numbering.

I’m just interested as you hear a bit about 6 digital machines running 24hours trying to get VDP jobs out and you expect this to me more than just mail merges, not so much transactional printing.

What software do you use to build the document? I don’t mean xmpie, Fusion pro I’m talking how do you build the data so xmpie or Fusion pro can do the merging. Your customer will have a huge database and say for example the client sells electrical goods. They could say, ok everyone who has bought a Sony TV in the last 3 months gets a letter giving them a discount of %10 off a PS3, those that bought a Samsung TV get %10 off a surround sound system.

You obviously need to build that query. Do you just manually filter thru the results of a excel spreadsheet or is there specific software that will let you pull data like that? I guess the question is, is there a conduit between raw data and your VDP software.

[pcmodem]

The software for building the Variable Data job (xmpie, fusion pro) can do the logic of determining which letter and how much of a discount they get.

If you are referring to a more general term of who to send to. Using your example above say there were 10,000 people who purchased items but only 2,500 people fell within the parameters of buying a Sony or Samsung TV within the last 3 months. This type of information is typically filtered/data mined directly from the MIS system and not at the printer. If you do need to perform this function at the printer, we use our mailing presort software to help us with our logic. We use Mail Manager, but you could use Access or Excel (with Data Filtering)

[Schnitzel]

I use a custom made Python script for inserting the database into MySQL, then extracting the data to TXT files, in the order and structure my VDP software needs.
This gives an extremely high level of flexibility - Python is an amazing language for these kind of tasks. Really worth learning if you intend to do massive VDP jobs.

After creating the TXT files, I import them using InData for InDesign. It cannot create a VDP file such as PPML, but it suits my needs, though, since it is very flexible compared to off-the-shelf VDP software.

[UberTech]

Yeah, I figured there is a bit of custom software involved. I guess every customer is so different you probably couldn't get an off the shelf package to deal with all of them. If I was to try it I would do it with a PHP script then the querys could be executed anywhere.

I guess this is the problem with VDP. You have all the work playing with databases and then the software to generate the finished document and then the printing. It would be a hard sell to convince a customer the extra cost is justified. Or even being prepared to take a hit for the job.

[Schnitzel]

...probably couldn't get an off the shelf package to deal with all of them.

Actually, I was interested for some time in GMC's PrintNet. Interested, that is, until I heard the price tag. Now that's a real behemoth for producing VDP jobs. It contains the simple VDP tools every software has (text styling, image placement, rules etc.), in addition to table creation, charts, a built-in programming language for manipulating data, and much more. It can do practically anything you want. The thing was, again, the price, which was absurdly way above our budget.

There is a solution out there, just not for small-to-medium businesses. That's why I invested the time to learn the scripting language. It paid off big time, eventually.

[pcmodem]

In these cases, do you already have the list of people (records) of who the Variable Data piece is going to?

[printhousepl]

I fill indesign can do te needful with image variable facility to work with without any other investment

Is anyone doing massive VDP work, in the sense of image VDP and huge databases? Not so much the mail merge stuff, or numbering.

I’m just interested as you hear a bit about 6 digital machines running 24hours trying to get VDP jobs out and you expect this to me more than just mail merges, not so much transactional printing.

What software do you use to build the document? I don’t mean xmpie, Fusion pro I’m talking how do you build the data so xmpie or Fusion pro can do the merging. Your customer will have a huge database and say for example the client sells electrical goods. They could say, ok everyone who has bought a Sony TV in the last 3 months gets a letter giving them a discount of %10 off a PS3, those that bought a Samsung TV get %10 off a surround sound system.

You obviously need to build that query. Do you just manually filter thru the results of a excel spreadsheet or is there specific software that will let you pull data like that? I guess the question is, is there a conduit between raw data and your VDP software.

[Digital Press Guy]

Uber Tech:

There are many direct mail companies running on KM engines doing massive amounts of VDP work running on software from Jetletter LLC.

Jetletter's PSL software is intensely FAST at a third the price of offerings from GMC. A new version with a much friendlier user interface will be announced by June.

Jetletter's software can be used to design both static and dynamic elements of a VDP file. It is capable of dynamic rendering on the fly a feature only found on software costing much more. It will work with all third party design suites and apps.

Full feature trial versions are available. More info can be found at:

PSL-Jet Letter- Variable Data Printing Software

[Digital Press Guy]

Uber Tech:

There are many direct mail companies running on KM engines doing massive amounts of VDP work running on software from Jetletter LLC.

Jetletter's PSL software is intensely FAST at a third the price of offerings from GMC. A new version with a much friendlier user interface will be announced by June.

Jetletter's software can be used to design both static and dynamic elements of a VDP file. It is capable of dynamic rendering on the fly a feature only found on software costing much more. It will work with all third party design suites and apps.

Full feature trial versions are available. More info can be found at:

PSL-Jet Letter- Variable Data Printing Software

[PrintPiet]

Ubertech: you can check a lot of cases at the Xerox PiXI award and on www.podi.org