Xerox FreeFlow VDP Master printing is slooow

[speedycps]

I'm using a Xerox Docucolor 250 with an EFI Rip. To print out mailings we started using the "Create Master" / "Use Master" option in the print driver. Theoretically you print the "master" to the printer (non-variable information) using the "Create Master" option. Then print the variable data file using the "Use Master" option. From what I've read it only rips the master file once, and rips the variable data on the fly. However It's taking forever to actually print this way. It's like I'm printing each VDP print piece separately. I started a job of 900 odd mail pieces and it ripped and started printing after about 5 hours...just insane. Anyone have any ideas about the xerox "freeflow" VDP solution or what I may be doing wrong.

 

[Shalom]

Other formats?

Other formats?

Does your Fiery connect directly to the DocuColor, or is there another Xerox RIP in the printstream? Our shop has an iGen3 with a EFI Fiery RIP, but it has to pass-through Xerox's DocuSP RIP and that causes the FreeFlow to be slower than it should be. For variable jobs, we've switched over to using PPML as our print stream and the processing times have been cut in half. The Fiery should be able to ingest a PPML file - can your VDP software produce that?

 

[bphilippi]

Vipp

Vipp

Hi,

I would suggest checking out Xerox's VIPP. it is INCREDIBLY fast. Definitely faster than anything else out there at the moment.

Depending on your application development workflow, you can have your graphic designers use the VI pro plugin for indesign. XMpie also outputs to VIPP and there are other vendors such as Lytrod.

For complete flexibility, hand coding a VI program is an option. Xerox does offer courses for developers.
I use VI on a daily basis to create applications that are incredibly cpu intensive and have only ran into slow ripping once.

I may be a little biased towards the hand coding option as I have found it much faster than using applications such as lytrod. For a simple mailout and address program, it may take approximately 10 minutes to hand code as opposed to an hour or so using layout programs.

 

[X33]

The FreeForm solution is actually part of the EFI Fiery servers; it's not a Xerox FreeFlow feature.

FreeForm is the simplest of VDP solutions out there, no wonder it is a free feature in the Fierys, but it is also very powerful and most of the time enough for simple VDP campaigns such as simple mailers.

I don't know much about your workflow, but here are a few considerations :
1. Your master MUST include every single static object in your design : background, images, logos, text, etc. I would recommend sending your master as a PDF.
2. Your variable piece MUST include only the variable text

when you say it takes 5 hours, who exactly takes 5 hours, is it the Fiery ripping the job, or is it perhaps the application (Word, Corel, etc) or the workstation (PC/MAC) spooling the job. Most of the time is the application/workstation trying to create the spool file and then transmitting it through the network; once it gets to the Fiery it rips the file in seconds/minutes.

Your master file is usually big in size depending on your design (1,5,20,100 mb); while your variable file, being text only, should be only a few kb, did you check that with Command Workstation?

what application are you using to merge your data?