With the increasing pursuit of personalization, the requirements for variable data printing are also increasing. However, for different personalized printing, traditional methods of plate making and printing are difficult to adapt to this requirement. There is a large potential market for personalized printing, such as greeting cards, invitations, membership management, certificates, and even calendars made with photos of themselves. There have been innumerable facts that individualized letters will obviously increase the feedback rate, because this is a kind of respect and understanding to the recipient, which is more likely to attract readers' attention.
The development of digital printing offers possibilities for variable data printing. The so-called variable data printing means that some content in the printing layout needs to be different from each other, but only one complete layout is designed, variables are defined, a connection is established with the database file, and each of the variables is automatically changed during printing. Zhang needs to change content. The content of the change can be text or color pictures. We can understand this layout design as consisting of two layers, one layer is a fixed layer, this part of each content has a fixed, invariable, fixed layer can be directly in the variable data application software layout design, It can also be designed after other software to generate PDF or EPS files and then imported; another layer is a variable layer, this part of the content is based on the contents of the database each have changed. The traditional concept of printing layout is to create the layout of the required printing content, and then print it. This is the same layout, the same main content and only a small number of different content, but also a large number of printing requirements, if you make them one by one to make the corresponding layout, it will be a very cumbersome process, but also prone to errors, and printing The amount of data that needs to be processed can also be particularly large. If you can achieve variable data printing, you can greatly reduce the workload, convenient and fast. There are many applications for variable data printing, such as PrintNet, PrintShop Mail, Private-I, and DataMerge, DesignMerge, etc., which are linked to QuarkXPress.
The biggest feature of variable data printing is that the content of each piece is not exactly the same. For printing in the traditional sense, that is, no variable information printing, a page to be printed many copies, most of the time to spend on printing, so for printing and RIP synchronized digital printing, the bottleneck of work in the printing office RIP is mostly in a waiting state. For variable data printing, the information on each page is different, which is equivalent to printing only one page for each interpretation of a page. If a conventional PS format output is used for conventional printing, this page description language will completely transfer the content of each page printed to the RIP. This results in the waste of a fixed amount of duplicate RIP on each page, resulting in Variable data print files create bottlenecks at the RIP, making it difficult to achieve high-speed printing. Strictly speaking, this method only realizes variable data in the layout design, and it still prints page by page. And such a large amount of documents, it is easy to cause a crash in the RIP process. If you use the PPML output, it will be completely different.
PPML is the abbreviation of Personal PrintMarkup Language, which is a personalized printed logo language. PPML does not describe the content of the entire page page by page, but defines the content of the page as different objects. This is like treating fixed information and variable information separately. The fixed information is an object. The variable information is other objects. Its objects are reusable, so the fixed objects need only be described once when generating PPML files. The same applies when it is transmitted to a digital press. After its object is transferred to the data disk of a digital press, it can be reused continuously, not only during a work cycle, but even after being reused day after day. This feature can reduce the amount of data generated by the file tenfold, thus reducing the network transmission time and reducing the RIP time, because it also avoids the waste of duplicate RIP. This is equivalent to the fixed object RIP stored in the machine first, each page is printed when the first fixed object is matched with the corresponding variable information of the page, printed into a complete and different pages. The PPML file contains information about where each object should be placed on each page, as well as its size. It also contains information on where to extract fixed objects that are already RIP-friendly. This PPML file effectively improves the efficiency of variable data printing, making it possible for most digital presses to print at full speed. For variable records that are not very large, the PS file can also be used to print variable data. However, PPML files will fully demonstrate its efficiency for printing requests with thousands of records.
PPML is a simple, human-readable language that describes the file flow at a structured data level. Its basic structure is as follows:
. . . >. . .
_SET. . . >. . .
. . . >. . .
. . . >. . .
. . . >. . . . </MARK>
. . . >. . . . </MARK>
</PAGE>
. . . >. . . </PAGE>
</document>
. . . >
Each "Mark" element here contains an object for the content of the page. It can be any file format supported by the digital press, such as PS, PDF, JPEG, TIFF, EPS, etc. That is, it can be directly accepted. These file formats are embedded in their description. Its open and flexible structure allows PPML files to be printed in various printing environments.
For most users, PPML files are an effective way to print variable data on a wide range of devices. Not only that, but technically it has other benefits. Because PPML is based on XML, PPML file flow can be queried, modified, subseted, converted, and debugged through common XML software tools. In fact, PPML itself is a structured database of information, and its XML-based features also make it an ideal printing language for generating documents directly in a Web services environment.
Variable data printing is increasingly used in a wide range of personalized markets. The processing of variable information such as texts in these products may be achievable in the conventional labor, but it is almost impossible for a color picture such as photographs to be changed ten years ago. Now, with digital printing The development, especially the success of PPML, made it not only possible, but also very convenient and quick. (Text/When Yongqing Li Ying)
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