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Creo Print-On-Demand Solutions have just announced Darwin for InDesign v2.0*. This is a new version release of their InDesign VDP plug-in. From the line-up of new features, there's little question that Creo POD are chasing XMPie uDirect in an attempt to match its feature set (and market share)...
This new Darwin version now supports InDesign CS3 and boasts the following key features:
PURL Integration with easypersonalizedurls.com. They've supported LookWhosClicking integration for a while now and have expanded this to include this new ASP PURL solution.
Adobe Photoshop Actions are now supported. Previously Darwin did not support Photoshop Actions so you could not create special effects using Photoshop filters.3rd Party Photoshop Plug-ins are now supported for creating personalised images. This enables you to use Photoshop plug-ins such as AlienSkin Splat; a very popular Photoshop plug-in that enables you to incorporate images in text (e.g. your name in coffee beans).
Style Rules enable users to apply an InDesign Character Style to a variable text object.
New Page lookup Rules enable pages from different InDesign documents to be included in a Darwin document based on business rules.
While there is no doubt that Darwin is quickly closing the gap to XMPie uDirect, fundamental areas of differentiation between the two products still remain. uDirect is still stronger in it's support for InDesign core features such as Transparency, Effects, Object Styles, while Darwin offers differentiation against uDirect through it's page picking ability from different InDesign documents and hot folder automation for creating print-ready files from data files.
So for now, at least, there continues to be a place for both players in the market.
* Darwin version 2 for InDesign CS3 (not InDesign v2!). Darwin's version numbering convention is rather confusing, but is related to having two different versions for QuarkXPress and InDesign.
Posted on Monday, 1 October 2007 at 10:22 PM | TrackBack: http://www.veedeepee.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/28
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» Darwin vs. uDirect from veedeepee
Print on-Demand Solutions recently published a performance benchmark comparison on Darwin versus uDirect. This comparison study indicated that Darwin was consistently faster than uDirect across different application types and output formats; with resul... Read More »
Tracked on Friday, 9 November 2007 at 6:22 PM