Variable data printing software is widely used

The development of digital printing has been going on for many years. Nowadays, people are no longer familiar with it, are curious about it, or even surprised and doubted because digital printing has already benefited from the unique advantages of variable data, on-demand printing, personalized printing, and short Printing markets such as printing and printing have demonstrated their style, providing the most personalized service to customers with different needs.

In the early days of digital printing, people were most concerned about digital printing technology principles and core engines for various types of digital printing, as well as physical printing and digital printing equipment. Digital printing equipment developed by different manufacturers with different applications, different operating principles, and different functions and characteristics has greatly enriched the printing equipment market, and the number of brands is enough to make people dazzled. However, with the development of digital printing technology, people's understanding of digital printing has deepened, and they have begun to realize that variable data printing (VDP) is the main market for digital printing. Variable data printing does not have to compete with traditional printing to compete for the original market share of the printing market. Instead, it can completely create a shortcut to create and create a brand-new printing market with true personalized printing services. This is the development of variable data printing. The real highlights and future are.

However, the development of variable data printing is not easy. Nowadays, with the gradual maturity of hardware technology, how to realize the input, conversion, and output of data information in the digital print production process, and how to realize the sharing of data information among numerous devices using different technologies The non-hardware technical issues such as how to personalize data information in variable data printing have become important factors in the rapid development of variable data printing. At the same time, if you want to make variable data printing truly serve the personalized printing market, you can't count on only the individualized needs that individual customers have already reflected. Instead, you need to fully analyze the potential needs of the printing market and customers and take the initiative to market. To open up, in a huge market information database, through the purpose of data mining, to form marketing information to meet customer needs, so as to establish a variable data printing database. The establishment of a variable data print database and the development and application of the printing software that enables the transfer, conversion and compatibility of variable data information not only depend on the technical capabilities of the printing field, but must also be joined by the IT industry elites. It can be seen that the technological development of variable data printing in recent years has shifted to the development of variable data printing software with complete functions, wide applicability, and easy expansion and upgrading. This development orientation and trend are driving the ever-changing variable data printing software. development of.

To ensure that the digital printing system converts a large amount of database information into specific customer marketing information and meets the needs of individual customers, the digital printing system can be used more quickly and easily, from cheaper plug-in software to being able to run automatically The system software of the company's publishing business, the digital printing market has continuously developed a series of variable data software that can be selected by printing companies.

In order to fully understand the new changes that are taking place in VDP and its future development, we have divided the commonly used variable data printing software into three levels: a printer language program that can interact with post-RIP software. XTensions, plug-ins and extension software, and Postscript/PDF application software with specific features.

Universal printer language program

Postscript software has become a very popular application software in the printing industry, so that people may overlook the important issue that it is not the standard language for most print output devices. In addition to using RIP to explain

In addition to Postscript input data, digital presses can also be driven by the printer's control language program. At this point, the printing engine language program can be used to directly set up a labeling engine for a large amount of data of the input printing press, and print labels for output are given, such as what type of labeling, where it is annotated, and the ability to control different choices of the printing press. , such as to determine which one to choose when printing digital printing, with the printer's built-in stapler in any position and so on.

At present, the development of universal languages ​​that can be applied to various types of digital printers is a matter of great concern to the industry and the direction that suppliers have been striving for. The most common printer language program currently available is Hewlett-Packard's Printer Control Language (HP PCL), which can be used to drive HP, Canon, and other laser printers that do not require Postscript RIP. IBM Corporation has invested in the development of Advanced Function Presentation (AFP), which is characterized by its independent structure, which can directly convert the print data into intelligent print data stream (IPDS) for specific devices and drive the output. Equipment for variable data printing.

Xerox has developed its metacode software as specific software for the LPS series of digital presses, using input formats that many digital presses can accept. Most Xerox digital presses can also be driven by Kodak's Spire Color Server or by using Variable Print Specification (VPS), a variable data specification language developed by Saturn.

Since the general printer language does not have the ability to quickly process complex images when Postscript is being produced, it is necessary to simplify many redundant processing steps before submitting variable print data to the digital printer engine. The simplification of processing improvements has promoted substantial progress in the printing press language.

Many modern VDP solutions combine the transmission speed of printer language data with the complexity of Postscript output, such as the combination of a static Postscript background with variable text, and simple images transmitted by the printer's language control. However, for any printer language, the potential deep-seated problem of VDP applications is the compatibility of printer languages ​​with digital printing devices. The language of variable data printing applications must be compatible with the output device, which may limit the printing Businesses can only choose a single vendor's series of software.

A typical example of a printer language solution is Canon, which bundles imageWARE Publishing Manager with imageRUNNERs to provide printer language solutions. Although this application can output assembled files in PDF format, it is generally necessary to drive Canon’s output devices through PCL print driver software.

The higher-level development trend of printer language programs is to apply enterprise-grade printer language systems that are more suitable for large-scale enterprises. Although such systems have been under development for more than a decade, Autograph software from document Sciences has been used by insurance, banking, and healthcare organizations for the processing of documents, bills, and related businesses. Autograph and the new application's xPression VDP are capable of Postscript and PDF output, and are more used to create AFP, metacode, or PCL print data streams.

Group 1 Software's enterprise-level DOC1 Series 5 software enables users to create a variable in a computer program in the Windows interface before submitting their layout to a mainframe, UNIX, AS/400, or Windows NT imposition server. The data printing solution, its client/server architecture, is the biggest feature of enterprise-class VDP solutions. DOC1 software also includes various networking tools that can create online documents, electronic payments, and file archiving. The software is now clearly a high-end product, and it can be clearly seen only from its impressive $150,000 mark.

DOC1 software can co-drive high-speed printing presses with its own printer language such as metacode, AFP and VPS. Group 1's R&D team has added more and more equipment suppliers, and the Personalized Print Markup Language (PPML) developed is also an XML-based non-device proprietary printer language.

Low price plugins and extensions

Design companies and printing companies are possible through the application of a few

Change data printing software or plug-ins, retaining their preferred layouts, such as combining QuarkXPress applications with XTensions software, or combining Adobe InDesign and frameMaker plug-ins. The characteristic of this kind of product is to be able to communicate with the external database rationally, and it is easy to use, the price is reasonable, its lower price has become the main selling point of plug-in and expansion software in the application of variable data printing. However, there are some deficiencies in such software, such as the lack of the ability to classify and orchestrate complex data, which is necessary in VDP applications. Therefore, if you use plug-ins to handle complex printing jobs, you may have to deal with a huge amount of Postscript processing, which is obviously a very time consuming task. At the same time, the success of variable data processing also depends on the network operating speed and RIP's rapid processing capabilities.

Another option is to create an "optimized Postscript" application. It refers to a workflow implemented using Postscript Level 2 cache (that is, a RIP memory area capable of storing duplicate page content). It can create VDP applications that are optimized for Postscript, and can be processed not only at the same time as printing using RIP. The static background data of the file, and the result can be stored in the cache, which can be called repeatedly when printing is needed. In contrast, the huge Postscript workflow must repeatedly RIP entire batches of background images, causing a waste of time and money.

For variable data printing with stringent budget requirements, ARTS PDF offers the Variform Lite plug-in and Variform Plus plug-in that can be combined with Adobe Acrobat V6 to allow database record information to be imported into the PDF format, priced at only $199 each. $349. According to experts, Variform's hot folder automation solution allows users to use electronic files from web-based forms, e-mail or other sources, and can automatically perform a variety of personalized print file conversions, such as lists, documents, and packing lists. . Each data record can generate a duplicate PDF page, which can be easily proofed or output on any Postscript compatible press.

The Variform Lite plug-in is compatible with both MAC and PC, but it only accepts data tables or comma-separated text files as data input. The Windows Plus plug-ins provide database open connectivity or PDF data input capabilities.

The earliest possible application of variable data printing workflow QuarkXTensions is Personalizer-X software plug-in developed by the Dutch TechnoDesign company, the software can be applied to 6 languages, the plug-in compatible with XPress 4.1 to Xpress 5.0, but currently only applicable to With the use of Mac OS 9 (XPress 6/Mac OS X and Windows versions are still under development), variable data printing workflows must be entered in ASCII text (should be boxed, comma-separated, or fixed-width paragraph). The base price Personalizer-X software includes Postscript output, but it can also be applied to print drivers for PPML and Xeikon's Intellistream printer language.

Darwin Desktop software developed by Kodak, has been widely used to increase QuarkXPress VDP capabilities, the more common is the use of Kodak's Spire Color Server bundled. Similarly, VPS is another format that supports printout of data in addition to Postscript and PDF. Darwin Desktop software not only supports Kodak's automatic image replacement workflow, but also works with Brisque RIPs. Darwin software is able to insert personalized text and images, and also to be able to change the color and text of the text.