Digital printing to personalization (a)

The second generation of variable data software will make desktop publishing more personified.
One of the hot new software that has emerged in the past few years has appeared under various names: “Variable Data,” “Customization,” and/or “Humanization.” One year ago, technology needed to generate Content-containing static layouts, changes between plates and plates, and strong front-end processing and expensive software packages complicate the technology and limit its features. (For a report on this initial technology, see Les Cowan's “Variable Data Software,” which co-publishes digital printing - now part of the on-demand commercial printing [DP, April/May, 1997, p28].) Now, The most powerful and fairly inexpensive software has emerged: Xtensions from Qvark Xpress.
Variable data software is still in its cradle stage, and there will be many difficulties in its further growth. But the three programs we've seen for this feature (Agfa's Personalizer-x, Vision's Edge's Focus Gold, and Angel's Darwin Desktop 2.0) show that the vendor's direction is correct.
The concept of variable data printing is based on "mail merge" and is similar to word processing software. The variable data software that will be seen in this chapter mainly adopts the same method. Only in this way can we realize all the advantages of a page layout application: better glyph processing, professional graphics processing, even with variable data. The ability to form images.
* Know your output device There is no doubt that digital printing workflows are needed to make more efficient use of the ability to print variable data. Although these and other variable data applications are designed to support output to digital presses, they are also specifically designed for one or the other digital presses. Agfa's Personatizer-X was designed for output to its Chromapress press. This is not surprising. However, these programs generally allow your variable data file to be exported as a Postccript file that is sent to any digital printer or copier for printing or copying. (Or it can be distilled into a PDF format)
* Selection of applications As we reported last year, vendors with variable data software and compatible hardware find that their customers are not fully utilizing the capabilities of the variable data system. However, people believe that as the technology advances, more customers will use them creatively.
So far, these softwares have mainly been sold through the direct selling market. Vendors have established customer manuals and flyers based on data stored in databases. The new digital printing capabilities allow the variable data to be combined with the page without trace, rather than making it apparently "ink" to the page. Any company that builds a database for his clients can make full use of variable data. Many of these applications are able to save interaction pages based on a consolidated database of one or more regions, depending on which one or more data domains you have merged. Is the customer a male? If yes, a page for men is generated, and if it is a woman, another page is generated. For example, Vision's Edge generated Focus Gold can generate 1600 different pages based on a template.
The next step is not to evaluate these applications, nor how to do it. It is only to understand the basic method of the manufacturer to define variable data software, what the current production yield rate and error rate of the software are, and what kind of possibility is to the end customer.
* Generate templates In the programs we see, Scitex's Darwin Desktop has the most sophisticated interface. In fact, XTension is two separate but looped programs. Darwin Pilot is a standalone application where you can set up working files, templates, and data. Darwin Co-Piolt runs in Quark and controls the fields that are inserted into the output of the Quark page. (We assume that the proper meaning of the product name term "Darwin" refers to the "modified evolution" feature produced by the printed sheets.) The first step in the process is to tell XTension that it is not surprising that you will be ready to make a fight. The first step in production is to arrange layouts and assign variable data areas. The value of any software package is that it is possible to shuffle static and variable data in the same file frame and rearrange the surrounding fixed text as needed, just as these three items actually do. (Focus Gold has an interesting feature. When creating a variable-parameter file—a template has been generated before merging the data files—it allows you to enter a minimum or maximum parameter that any particular field may contain. When you start When your variable field is added to the layout, you can automatically enter all the "minimum" and "maximum" values. Look at how the two extremes affect the font flow. This is a good attempt. ) So the best way to start is to generate fixed elements. First of all, we write this letter and then start to create a template for our variable data.
In Agfa's Persoalizer-X, variable data fields are generated after the data file is input. The Data File Settings dialog box provides you with several options and filters for entering data files. An important detection dialog for labeling is to use the first input record as a domain name. In some database programs, when a database is output as an unqualified text file, it stores the domain name in the first field. If such a data file has been created and has not yet been verified, the first variable data sales order may require "marked name", which may not be reasonable. In Personalizer-X, you also need to tell XTension where you want to place the images contained in the layout on the layout.
Creating variable parameter files in Focus Gold is as simple and complex as you might think. It can pre-fill the input of actual data files and use the aforementioned minimum and maximum domain inputs. When you distinguish certain images on the next page, Focus Gold provides many options for the domain; that is, you can set all fields. , but tell the type of imposition for each field that Focus Gold will enter (regardless of whether it's bills, flyers, advertisements, etc.). The disadvantage of Focus Gold is that the interface is not intuitive, and understanding its full meaning requires a lot of artificial research tips (of course, only available in PDF file format). (To be continued)