What is the difference between VI Designer, Fusion Pro and Darwin

[gumbylives]

Hi,
We just purchased a Xerox 4127 Printer with Free Flow Print Server.
At the moment we are using word to do our variable data. We do large quantities of items (40K - 100K). It is mostly text and sometimes barcodes. No Images.
I was wondering if anyone could help us understand the differences between just using Word (latest version), Xerox FF8 V1 Designer, Darwin and Fusion Pro. I know Fusion Pro is a plugin for Indesign/Acrobat.
Are there issues with any of these? ie. Printing large amount of files, rip time, usuability?
We just want to find out what would be the best to use.
Is word good enough? Is outputting to pdf the right way to go?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
Gumby

 

[JasonFF]

If Word is doing what you need, then Word is good enough. How is the processing time on that by the way? For large runs, I prefer to output to another format like PPML, and I find the RIP / Processing time to be a bit less. I use XMPie however, and output from InDesign, which you did not mention in your post. If you only output text, PDF probably handles it well.

 

[gumbylives]

Word...ppml

Word...ppml

Hi,
Yes word seems to make for long rip times. So to export via ppml is there a specific program for this. This is entirely new to us. Could you please elaborate on ppml as I am intrigued.
Thanks
Gumby

 

[JasonFF]

I did a quick google search and didn't find any PPML output pluggins for word, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. Even if it did, I don't think it would reduce your processing time very much. Word is most likely to blame for that.

The other programs you mentioned, as well as XMPie which I use, are specifically optimized to output faster. Couple that with a print format such as PPML, and your processing and RIP times are reduced even more.

My favorite thing about using XMPie is that I have a very high degree of control over design elements such as positioning, fonts, sizes, etc. With Word you won't have the same amount of control, but if it has been working for you I guess you don't really need it.

Most any of the VDP programs available on the market today can output to PPML, PDF, or another format, and will be able to handle all text variable documents with ease.

Another thing that might reduce rip times would be the Acrobat PDF optimizer - I run a lot of my PDFs through it before RIPing. I'm not sure how the Word output PDFs are, so maybe you don't need it, but you could give it a try.

 

[Paint]

We use Fusion Pro, and send VDX files to our press,
then rip fast and are easy to handle. For the money ($600.00)
you cant beat it...