Hello. I have some questions regarding XmPie vs Darwin. First off, I need to mention that the extent of my knowledge on this is limited work with datamerge in Indesign and doing both XmPie Udirect tutorials. And I should mention we are planning to print this on a Kodak Nexpress which allows printing of transparent raised ink (a clear, textured "varnish")
We are looking for a good VDP solution and I was wondering the benefits of using XmPie vs Darwin? I know there is a big cost difference for one, but can Darwin go as far as XmPie for complete solutions?
I think for now, we will not need to go huge with the entire XmPie software doing web, email, sms and server versions, we would stick to print and getting Udirect would probably be a good start off point, we may go as far as needing Uplan and maybe the server solution to not have to deal with the super long ripping of files. But we need to keep options open for the longer term for web, email etc as well.
The thing is, we are starting out, but we will want to put out high quality work, that means lots of transparency in indesign, specialy when we use the Nexpress feature for the raised ink (which is done as an added image on a top layer in multiply mode in indesign). One thing about this : Talking to a Darwin Rep, we were told Darwin did not support transparency output unless you went with a PDF? For XmPie, they told us, for a Kodak Nexpress, you should output to VPPL (not sure about the exact name).
So basicly i'm looking for opinions on both software, is doing alot of transparency unrealistic (is the technology too new to output these files), and to consider the Kodak Nexpress as the output (wondering if XmPie is working as well as Darwin with it).
Any comments would be appreciated.
Thank you.
We are looking for a good VDP solution and I was wondering the benefits of using XmPie vs Darwin? I know there is a big cost difference for one, but can Darwin go as far as XmPie for complete solutions?
I think for now, we will not need to go huge with the entire XmPie software doing web, email, sms and server versions, we would stick to print and getting Udirect would probably be a good start off point, we may go as far as needing Uplan and maybe the server solution to not have to deal with the super long ripping of files. But we need to keep options open for the longer term for web, email etc as well.
The thing is, we are starting out, but we will want to put out high quality work, that means lots of transparency in indesign, specialy when we use the Nexpress feature for the raised ink (which is done as an added image on a top layer in multiply mode in indesign). One thing about this : Talking to a Darwin Rep, we were told Darwin did not support transparency output unless you went with a PDF? For XmPie, they told us, for a Kodak Nexpress, you should output to VPPL (not sure about the exact name).
So basicly i'm looking for opinions on both software, is doing alot of transparency unrealistic (is the technology too new to output these files), and to consider the Kodak Nexpress as the output (wondering if XmPie is working as well as Darwin with it).
Any comments would be appreciated.
Thank you.