How Do You VDP?

[PricelineNegotiator]

Hey guys,

We're taking delivery of a J75 this week and I am gung ho to start lining up VDP jobs. I just wanted to learn more about your workflow of a VDP job, as I have never run an advertising campaign style VDP job, and that is what I would like to get into.

We currently use InDesign for all of our type setting, and I've heard that XMPie is a great job for VDP and multi media marketing. The only thing that boggles my mind is how these jobs get from InDesign to my printer. I know that XMPie can be an InDesign plugin and facilitates the creation of VDP pieces. My understanding is that each page is RIP'ed individually, leading to slow printing speeds, and a bottle neck at the processing side of the printer.

How are you guys that do VDP printing currently getting your files to the printer? What about presorting it? Is there any way to combine the variable data of the record with the address and barcode so that the entire operation is done at once?

Really just looking for your 2 cents, as I have no idea how this is done.

 

[wonderings]

I guess it depends on what type of variable you are doing. The variable we do is just basic address stuff. I set it all up in indesign and use layers. The graphics and static text I use in layer one, the variable data (for us just an address or name or both) I use in layer two. I then make a pdf of the graphic page with all the images and static text. I make a merged document with just the variable info. Doing it this way is much faster as it makes a page for each piece of data, so if you have a 5000 names, that would be 5000 pages, and it really bogs down my Retina MacBook Pro making a file that big with graphics on each page. So I end up with a 5000 page indesign document, with only text. I then make a pdf of the variable. I can then merge these to in Command Workstation under the variable tab. If you need something more complex I think you would need to purchase xmpie or some other programs, but this way is free if you have indesign already. We have a J75 as well and it works great, worked well on our DC260 as well.

 

[dabob]

Fusion Pro . . . does everything we need it to do - but still use the merge function in Indesign for ez stuff

 

[FileJockey]

InDesign Data Merge works well, but the PDFs it creates tend to be very large, not practical for sets of thousands of records. You can of course break up the job into ranges of records to make smaller PDFs. We use Fusion Pro for larger jobs. It creates very streamlined PDFs, as well as PPML files which, although it is difficult to preview them, are very compact and will go through most modern RIPs.

 

[Digital Press Guy]

VDP Solutions generally come in one of two varieties. Plug in applications that require an application such as InDesign to render each file for output to your printer. XMPie and Fusion Pro would be examples.

Stand alone VDP solutions do not require a secondary application in order to create files and thus, result in much greater productivity. PSL Page Builder or GMC Software are examples.

When considering speed there are actually two issues to consider. Merge speed, the time it takes to actually merge variable data and RIP speed. Both processes are hampered when using a plug in solution.

If you are looking to produce multi-channel marketing campaigns your solution needs to be able to deliver data and files to other solutions that manage that process. While most solutions can do this in one way or another the question then becomes should you lock yourself into a proprietary application or go with a VDP solution that is open by design. Open architecture VDP solutions allow you add on additional capabilities as needed with a solution that best fits your needs and budget.

An example of this would be related to your question about presorting. PSL Page Builder allows users to break out address data for presorting, address verification etc. This can be done with most any presort service or solution.

Good luck with your new venture.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am associated with Jet Letter and PSL Page Builder.

 

[DCurry]

VDP Solutions generally come in one of two varieties. Plug in applications that require an application such as InDesign to render each file for output to your printer. XMPie and Fusion Pro would be examples.

Actually, while FusionPro does have a plugin for InDesign, you don't need to use it at all. The only thing the plugin does is let you predetermine what elements are variable. All the variable programming and merging is done in Acrobat, on any PDF.

 

[FileJockey]

Yes, thanks for clarifying that DCurry. I had almost forgotten about the Fusion Pro InDesign plugin, since I never use it. Just the Acrobat plugin.

 

[ajr]

XMPIE is owned by Xerox they would probably do you a deal if you ask them!

 

[Hugh_Sutherland]

How to do VDP on the J75.

How to do VDP on the J75.

...How are you guys that do VDP printing currently getting your files to the printer? What about presorting it? Is there any way to combine the variable data of the record with the address and barcode so that the entire operation is done at once?

Really just looking for your 2 cents, as I have no idea how this is done.

Hello,

XMPie is a solution that Xerox offer for VDP and cross media marketing. This is a great tools that you can use within InDesign - building your design, creating a rules based scenario for the variable data merge. This is high-level, for building complex VDP jobs, such as variable imaging and also personalised images (such as writing the name of a person in the snow etc.).

Not sure if you know, but if you're just running a simple merge of data, using an address and barcode, you can use your current software to do this and the power of the Fiery to combine the job.

On the Fiery print setup, you will have a tab called "VDP" or sometimes, older Fiery's will say "Freeform".

Here you need to send the full colour graphic (if this is the static part of your print) to the VDP section, creating a master image of it.

Secondly, you need to print the variable part now, with no static graphics, such as the text, address and barcode (using the mail merge facility within InDesign) - this needs to be printed using the VDP section again, however, don't create a master this time, choose a master instead.

This way, the Fiery will only RIP the graphic content once, and merge the variable data print with this, however many times it needs to print the entire job run. This will speed up processing speeds massively, and you shouldn't have any problems RIPing such a job as the main reason this clogs up the speed of the RIP is the fact your RIPing the graphic part for each print.

Hope this helps. Any problems, please message me.

All the best,
Hugh Sutherland

 

[JuanFoulds]

Hey guys,

We're taking delivery of a J75 this week and I am gung ho to start lining up VDP jobs. I just wanted to learn more about your workflow of a VDP job, as I have never run an advertising campaign style VDP job, and that is what I would like to get into.

We currently use InDesign for all of our type setting, and I've heard that XMPie is a great job for VDP and multi media marketing. The only thing that boggles my mind is how these jobs get from InDesign to my printer. I know that XMPie can be an InDesign plugin and facilitates the creation of VDP pieces. My understanding is that each page is RIP'ed individually, leading to slow printing speeds, and a bottle neck at the processing side of the printer.

How are you guys that do VDP printing currently getting your files to the printer? What about presorting it? Is there any way to combine the variable data of the record with the address and barcode so that the entire operation is done at once?

Really just looking for your 2 cents, as I have no idea how this is done.

Printshop Mail is worth having a look at, intuitive and easy to use, good online course content that takes you through the basics. (I've tried FusionPro Creater, PlanetPress Suite, Printshop Mail, Fiery VDP.) Printshop Mail is by far in my opinion the easiest and capable program to use. Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[[email protected]]

The actual process of getting a file to print is simple but depends on your RIP. So if it's a Fiery or Creo or any other RIP that can process VDP output then you're in good shape. Examples of this include PPML and VPS. In either case what you end up with is a compressed or Zipped file on your controller that you simply submit for printing and the RIP takes care of merging the static with the variable. Several great products have been mentioned and you might look into getting a trial version of each to see what you might like better.

 

[Dan Korn]

VDP Solutions generally come in one of two varieties. Plug in applications that require an application such as InDesign to render each file for output to your printer. XMPie and Fusion Pro would be examples.

Stand alone VDP solutions do not require a secondary application in order to create files and thus, result in much greater productivity. PSL Page Builder or GMC Software are examples.

Just a clarification on this: While it is true that the primary interface for designing FusionPro VDP templates is a plug-in to Adobe Acrobat, which allows any PDF file to be easily used as a VDP template, and that FusionPro also has an Adobe InDesign plug-in to take InDesign files and convert them to FusionPro VDP templates, FusionPro also has a stand-alone "server" utility which can compose (merge) output for a given VDP template and data file, without any dependency on Acrobat.

In fact, FusionPro's stand-alone composition engine is at the heart of many web-to-print systems in use today, including MarcomCentral, EFI Digital StoreFront, and Avanti. So you can take any FusionPro VDP template, upload it to any of those systems, and use those applications to merge data and compose output. I don't think you can do that with PSL Page Builder or GMC templates.

So I would actually classify FusionPro as being in your second category, of stand-alone VDP solutions, as it does not require a secondary application to render composed output, even though Acrobat hosts the primary design tool. (I would also submit that FusionPro has less dependence upon third-party software than XMPie does, as XMPie requires InDesign Server to compose output.)

I'll also quibble with your assertion that having to edit templates in Acrobat somehow results in less productivity. You generally have to open some kind of app to edit a VDP template, in any solution. There's nothing fundamentally more difficult about designing FusionPro templates in Acrobat than designing PSL Page Builder or GMC templates in their template editing applications.

When considering speed there are actually two issues to consider. Merge speed, the time it takes to actually merge variable data and RIP speed. Both processes are hampered when using a plug in solution.

I have to take issue with this assertion as well. FusionPro can compose output very quickly, either in Acrobat with FusionPro VDP Creator, or using the stand-alone FusionPro VDP Producer or Producer API. And there's really no way that, once an output file is composed, that either the application used to create it, or whether that application was a plug-in or a standalone app, has any effect on the time it takes to process on the RIP.

If you are looking to produce multi-channel marketing campaigns your solution needs to be able to deliver data and files to other solutions that manage that process. While most solutions can do this in one way or another the question then becomes should you lock yourself into a proprietary application or go with a VDP solution that is open by design. Open architecture VDP solutions allow you add on additional capabilities as needed with a solution that best fits your needs and budget.

I'm not sure what you mean here by "open architecture." In what way is Page Builder more open than FusionPro? Neither are open source. Again, you can take a FusionPro template and upload it to most of the leading web-to-print engines on the market today. You can also use FusionPro's DIF Control API to design or modify templates programmatically. You can design your own web-to-print system around FusionPro if you want, and many in-plants have their own custom applications utilizing FusionPro. You can also use plug-ins and JavaScript to add your own capabilities to FusionPro. It's really a very flexible solution which gives you many options in terms of composing output, either locally in Acrobat, on other servers on your network using FusionPro VDP Producer or Producer API, through a web-to-print app like MarcomCentral, Digital StoreFront, or Avanti, or a custom solution.

Disclosure: I work for PTI Marketing Technologies, makers of FusionPro and MarcomCentral.

 

[Gina]

We use DesignMerge from Meadows Publishing. We use it with InDesign. It's affordable and does everything we need. It creates a PPML file that we send to our presses.